1 


PSYCH. 
UBRAm 


A 


THE   GREATEST   THING 
EVER  KNOWN 


By  RALPH  WALDO  TRINE. 


'*  The  Life  Books:' 

I  know  of  nothing  in  the  entire  range  of 
literature  more  calculated  to  inspire  the  young 
than  the  •'  Life  Books,"  and  to  renew  the  soul 
in  young  and  old.  —  From  a  Reader. 


WHAT  ALL  THE  WORLD'S  A-SEEKING. 

IN  TUNE  WITH  THE   INFINITE;  or,   Fulness  of 
Peace,  Power,  and  Plenty. 

The  ''Life''  Booklets. 
THE  GREATEST  THING  EVER  KNOWN. 
EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE. 
CHARACTER-BUILDING   THOUGHT   POWER. 


THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL   &  CO., 

NEW   YORK. 


THE   GREATEST  THING 
EVER   KNOWN 

By 
RALPH  WALDO   TRINE 


The  moment  we  fully 
and   vita lly     realize 

WHO     AND     WHAT     WE 

ARE,  we  then  begin  to 
build  our  own  world 
even  as  God  builds  His 


OF  THE 


OF 


NEW     YORK 
THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


auc. 

WYCH. 
UBfiAiOr 


Copyright,  1S9S, 
By  Ralph  Waldo  Trine 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     The  Greatest  Thing  Ever  Known  i 

II.     Divine  Energies  in  Every-day  Life  20 

III.  The  Master's  Great  but  Lost  Gift  ^8 

IV.  The     Philosopher's     Ripest    Life 

Thought 58 

V.  Sustained  in  Peace  and  Safety 

Forever 72 


175160 


OF 

OR' 


THE    GREATEST    THING 
EVER    KNOWN 


'T^HE  greatest  thing  ever  known — What  is 
it?  Full  surely  the  answer  must  be 
one  that  is  absolutely  universal,  both  in  its 
nature  and  in  the  possibilities  of  its  applica- 
tion. It  must  be  one  that  can  be  accepted 
wholly  and  unreservedly,  not  only  by  a 
single  individual,  but  even  by  bodies  of 
individuals,  be  they  the  originators  of  any 
particular  school  of  Ethics,  the  followers  of 
any  particular  system  of  Philosophy,  or 
even  the  adherents  of  any  great  system  of 
Religion.  It  must  be  one  so  true  in  itself 
that  it  can  be  accepted  by  all  men  alike  the 
world  over. 

And  again,  it  must  be  an  answer  that  is 
true  for  no  particular  period  of  time,  but 
equally  true  for  all  time — an  answer  that 
was  true  not  only  for  yesterday,  that  is  true 
for  to-day,  that  may  be  true  for  to-morrow, 

A 


2  THE   GREATEST  THING 

but  one  equally  true  for  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever.  In  laying  our  foundation, 
therefore,  it  must  be  laid  upon  something 
as  true  and  as  certain  as  Life  itself,  and  as 
eternal  as  Everlasting  Life. 

What  is  as  true  and  as  certain  as  Life  itself? 
Life,  only  Life.  And  what  do  we  mean  by 
this  answer  ?  Let  us  give  it  for  a  moment 
our  most  careful  consideration,  for  upon 
what  we  find  here  depends  and  rests  all 
that  is  to  follow.  Let  us  start,  then,  with 
that  in  regard  to  which  all  can  agree ;  some- 
thing taken  not  from  mere  tradition,  from 
mere  hearsay,  but  something  that  comes  to 
us  from  no  source  other  than  our  own 
interior  consciousness,  our  own  reason  and 
insight.  In  other  words,  let  us  make  our 
approach,  not  from  the  theological  stand- 
point, but  from  that  which  is  far  more 
certain  and  satisfactory — the  philosophical. 

Then,  and  then  only,  will  we  allow  pure 
reason  to  be  our  guide,  and  then  by  having 
as  the  earnest  desire  of  both  mind  and  heart, 
truth,  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and  then  for 
the  sake  of  its  influence  upon  every-day  life, 
we  will  thus  allow  pure  reason  to  be  illumined 
by  the  Light  that   lighteth  every  man  that 


EVER   KNOWN  3 

Cometh  into  the  world.  In  the  degree  that 
we  open  ourselves  to  and  are  true  to  this  are 
we  on  sure  and  safe  ground,  for  thus  are  we 
going  directly  to  the  source  and  the  only 
source  of  all  true  revelation.  In  the  degree, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  we  close  ourselves  or 
become  untrue  to  this  are  we  on  uncertain 
and  dangerous  ground,  and  liable  to  find  our- 
selves hopelessly  floundering  in  the  quagmire 
of  theological  traditions  and  speculations  and 
doubts,  of  which  the  world  has  already  seen 
so  much.  Pure  reason,  therefore,  shall  be 
our  guide — pure  reason  illumined  by  the 
Inner  Light. 

Again,  then,  What  is  Life  ?  Being  is  Life. 
Life  is  Being.  Being,  therefore,  is  our  start- 
ing-point, and  indeed  our  very  foundation 
itself. 

Each  can  form  his  own  idea  of  Being,  so 
that  in  reality  it  needs  no  defining.  By  it 
we  mean  that  self-existent  principle  of  Life 
and  all  that  attends  it,  without  beginning 
and  without  end,  the  Power  that  animates 
all  and  so  that  is  the  Life  of  all.  In  short, 
we  can  scarcely  define  Being,  if  indeed  it 
can  be  defined,  without  using  the  word  Life, 
and    indeed    without    identifying    the   two. 


4  THE    GREATEST   THING 

Being  and    Life,    then,   are    one    and   the 
same. 

It  is  Being  that  projects  itself  into 
ex-istence.  Being,  acting  through  its  own 
intelligence,  prompted  by  love,  projected  by 
will,  goes  out  and  takes  form.  We  cannot 
say  that  it  enters  into  form,  for  until  it  pro- 
jects itself  into  existence  there  is  no  form^ 
but  form  comes  by  virtue  of  Being,  the  self- 
existent  Principle  of  Life  and  Power  mani- 
festing itself  in  existence.  So  in  a  sense 
Life,  which  is  one  with  Being,  is  the  soul, 
and  form,  of  whatever  nature  the  body. 

Only  as  Being  projects  itself  into  exist- 
ence are  we  able  to  know  it.  We  can  know 
the  fact  that  Being  is^  but  only  as  it  mani- 
fests itself  in  form  are  we  able  to  know  it 
itself. 

Being  is  07ie^  not  many.  As  Being  is  the 
source  of  all  Life,  there  is,  then,  only  one  Life, 
and  this  Being  is  the  Life  of  all.  "  The  one 
Divine  Being;  and  this  alone  is  the  true 
Reality  in  all  Existence,  and  so  remains  in 
all  Eternity."  And  there  is  nothing  real 
that  is,  or,  indeed,  that  can  be,  outside  of  it. 
True,  then,  are  the  words  of  one  of  the  most 
highly    illumined    philosophers    of    modern 


EVER   KNOWN  5 

times — "  Thus  we  have  these  two  elements  : 
Being,  as  it  is  essentially  and  in  itself;  and 
Form,  which  is  assumed  by  the  former  in 
consequence  of  Existence.  But  how  have 
we  expressed  ourselves?  What  is  it  that 
assumes  a  form  ?  Answer :  Being,  as  it 
exists  in  itself,  without  any  change  what- 
ever in  its  inward.  Essential  Nature.  But 
what,  then,  is  there  in  Existence  ?  Answer  : 
Nothing  else  than  the  One  Eternal  and 
Unchangeable  Being,  besides  which  there 
can  be  nothing." 

This  Being  which  is  Infinite  is  in  truth, 
then,  the  Infinite  Being,  and  this  Infinite 
Being  is  what  we  mean  by  God — each  using 
the  term  that  appeals  most  to  himself. 
Literally,  •  the  I  Am,  as  is  signified  by  the 
name  Jehovah,  which  is  derived  in  the 
Hebrew  from  the  word  To  Be.  God,  then, 
is  the  Infinite  Being,  the  Infinite  Spirit  of 
Life  which  fills  all  in  existence  with  himself 
alone,  so  that  all  is  He,  since  He  is  All.  If 
God  is  all,  then  all  must  be  He,  and  from 
this  fact  there  is  no  escape,  and  no  other 
conclusion  can  be  arrived  at  which  does  not 
do  violence  to  all  rational  thought.  There 
are  those — and  to  such  these  pages  are  not 


6  THE   GREATEST   THING 

addressed,  for  so  limited  are  they  in  com- 
prehension, or  so  closed  to  truth  and  hence 
so  engrossed  in  bigotry,  that  they  either  can 
or  will  see  nothing  that  may  be  opposed  to 
their  present  ideas — there  are  those  who  say 
that  God  is  all,  and  immediately  begin  to  fill 
up  the  universe  with  that  which  God  is  not. 

Again,  there  are  those  open  to  and  eagerly 
seeking  for  the  highest  truth  who  say :  But 
evil  is  not  God,  and  how  then  can  God  be 
«//,  for  surely  there  is  such  a  thing  as  evil. 
Certainly  evil  is  not  God,  nor  has  God  any- 
thing to  do  with  evil.  Evil  is  simply  the 
result  of  the  temporary  perversion  of  the 
good,  and  as  such  must  either  cease  or  in 
time  die  at  its  own  hands.  As  such,  then, 
it  has  no  esse?itial  reality,  for  that  which  has 
essential  reality  has  neither  beginning  nor 
end. 

Man  is  the  only  one  who  has  to  do  with 
evil,  he  alone  is  its  author ;  man,  who  in  his 
thought  separates  himself  from  Divine  Being, 
in  whom  alone  true  happiness  and  blessed- 
ness can  be  found.  Regarding  the  mere 
bodily  existence  as  his  real  life,  he  tries  to 
find  pleasure  and  happiness  entirely  through 
these  channels,  and  many  times  by  violating 


EVER   KNOWN  7 

the  higher  laws  of  his  being,  and  thus  what 
we  term  evil  enters  in.  But  though  man 
has  perfect  freedom  in  all  his  thoughts  and 
acts,  God  will  suffer  no  such  violation.  And 
so,  from  the  pain  and  suffering  that  result 
from  the  violation  of  the  higher  laws  of  his 
being,  he  is  pushed  on  in  his  thought  and 
through  this  in  his  life  to  the  Reality  of  his 
being,  and  finds  that  only  in  conscious  union 
with  God  true  pleasure  and  blessedness  lie, 
as  God  surely  intends.  True,  then,  evil  is 
not  God,  nor  has  God  anything  to  do  with 
evil;  for  man  alone  has  to  do  with  it,  so 
long,  and  only  so  long,  as  he  lives  his  life 
out  of  a  conscious  union  with  the  life  of 
God. 

Infinite  Being,  God,  then,  is  the  one  and 
the  only  Life.  You  and  I  in  our  true  selves 
are  Life.  It  cannot  be  truly  said  that  we 
have  life,  for  we  are  Life;  Life  th^t  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  form  in  existence  that  we 
denominate  by  the  term  body.  And  as  the 
Infinite  Being,  the  Infinite  Life,  God,  is  the 
I  Am,  the  life  of  all  in  existence,  then  we 
indeed  are  parts  of  the  Infinite  Being,  the 
Infinite  Life,  the  I  Am,  of  the  very  God 
himself.     And  thus  it  is  that  your  life  and 


8  THE   GREATEST   THING 

mine  is  one  with  the  life  of  God.  By  this 
we  do  not  mean  the  mere  body,  but  the 
Real  Self  that  takes  to  itself  the  form — 
body.  It  is  utterly  impossible  that  there 
be  any  real  life  that  is  not  one  with  the 
life  of  God.  And  in  this  sense  it  is  true 
that  the  life  of  man  and  the  life  of  God 
are  essentially  and  necessarily  one  and  the 
same.  In  essence  they  are  one  and  the 
same;  they  differ  not  in  quality,  for  this  it 
is  impossible  rationally  even  to  conceive  of. 
There  is  a  difference — it  is  a  difference 
simply  in  degree^  not  in  essence  or  kind. 
It  is  only  by  reason  of  our  own  thought 
that  our  life  is  separate  from  the  life  of 
God,  only  by  reason  of  our  own  thought 
that  we  live  in  this  separation,  if  indeed 
we  can  use  the  term  live  where  the  full 
life  is  not  consciously  realised  and  enjoyed. 
Truly,  then,  "  In  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being." 

We  never  could  have  been,  and  never  can 
be,  other  than  Divine  Being.  And  I  fully 
agree  with  the  thought  expressed  in  a  recent 
letter  from  Prof.  Max  Miiller  in  which 
he  says :  "  I  cannot  accept  Athanasius 
when   he   says   that  we  can  become  gods; 


EVER   KNOWN  9 

man  cannot  say,  become  God,  because  he 
is  God;  what  else  could  he  be,  if  God  is 
the  only  true  and  real  being?" 

How  is  it,  then,  I  hear  it  asked,  that 
man  has  the  limitations  that  he  has,  that 
he  is  subject  to  fears  and  forebodings,  that 
he  is  liable  to  sin  and  error,  that  he  is  the 
victim  of  disease  and  suffering?  There  is 
but  one  reason.  He  is  not  living,  except 
in  rare  cases  here  and  there,  in  the  conscious 
realisation  of  his  own  true  Being,  and  hence 
of  his  own  true  Self.  We  must  in  thought 
be  conscious  of  who  and  what  we  are  before 
the  qualities  and  powers  of  our  real  being, 
and  hence  our  real  selves,  actualise  or  even 
manifest  themselves.  Says  one  of  the  most 
highly  illumined  seers  of  modern  times : 
"The  True  Life  and  its  Blessedness  con- 
sists in  a  union  with  the  Unchangeable  and 
Eternal;  but  the  Eternal  can  be  appre- 
hended 07ily  by  Thought^  and  is  in  no 
other  way  approachable  by  us." 

Thought  is  the  atmosphere,  the  element, 
in  a  sense  the  very  substance,  of  the  phase 
of  Divine  Being  that  we  call  human  life. 
How  much  it  is  likewise  that  of  other 
forms  of  Divine  Being  in  existence,  as  we 


lo        THE   GREATEST   THING 

see  it  in  the  various  manifestations  of  life 
around  us,  we  cannot  be  so  fully  certain 
of.  But  certain  it  is  that  through  thought, 
and  through  thought  alone,  we  are  able  to 
conceive  of  Divine  Being  as  the  Infinite 
Spirit  and  Essence  of  Life,  and  then  to  see 
clearly  that  it  is  the  Life  of  our  Life,  and 
then  to  live  in  the  realisation  of  our  one- 
ness with  it,  and  in  this  way  allow  the 
Divine  Word  to  become  incarnate  in  us 
by  being  thus  fully  and  completely  manifest 
in  us,  precisely  as  it  became  manifest  and 
hence  incarnate  in  the  Christ  Jesus,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  find. 

When  Divine  Being  manifests  itself  in 
physical  human  form,  its  inward  essential 
nature  or  reality  changes  not,  for  this  from 
its  very  nature  it  is  impossible  for  it  in  any 
way  to  do.  It  does,  however,  have  to  mani- 
fest itself  through  the  agency  of  physical 
senses,  and  precisely  for  this  reason  is  it 
that  for  a  time  our  real  inward  Essential 
Nature  and  Life  is  concealed  from  us,  but 
this  again  only  by  reason  of  our  limited 
comprehension. 

When  we  are  born  into  the  world  of 
Nature  we  see  and  cognise  through  and  by 


EVER   KNOWN  ii 

means  of  the  physical  senses,  and  the 
natural  physical  world  becomes  to  us  for  a 
time  the  real  world.  By-and-by,  however, 
through  these  very  senses  we  are  able  to 
conceive  of  the  One  and  Eternal  Source 
of  Life  as  our  real  and  therefore  our  only 
life,  and  then  through  them  to  hold  our- 
selves in  this  living  realisation.  Hence, 
first  that  which  is  natural  and  theii  that 
which  is  spiritual  is  necessarily  as  well  as 
literally  and  philosophically  true.  Happy, 
however,  is  the  man  who  dwells  not  long 
as  the  purely  natural  man,  but  is  early 
transformed  into  the  spiritual,  and  so  in 
whom  the  Divine  Word  early  becomes 
incarnate. 

Blessed  state  indeed,  says  the  thoughtful 
and  earnest  seeker  for  the  best  things  in 
life,  and  more  to  be  prized  than  all  else 
besides;  but  if  this  state  is  really  possible 
of  realisation,  what  can  be  said  regarding 
the  method  of  entering  into  it?  There  is 
only  one  thing  in  all  the  wide  universe 
that  will  enable  you,  as  well  as  all  the  world, 
to  do  it  effectually.  "  Be  ye  therefore  trans- 
formed by  the  renewing  of  your  minds." 
This  is  the  force,  the  transforming  power, 


12         THE    GREATEST   THING 

so  far  as  the  form  of  life  we  denominate 
by  the  term  human  is  concerned,  this  and 
this  alone. 

True,  then,  and  most  welcome  is  the 
great  fact  of  facts,  of  which  the  world  is 
beginning  to  become  so  conscious  to-day, 
that  "The  mind  is  everything;  what  you 
think,  you  become."  Mortal  mind?  says 
one.  Yes  and  no.  Strictly  speaking,  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  mortal  mind — there  is 
only  Divine  Mind.  When  in  our  own 
thought,  and  by  reason  of  our  limited 
comprehension,  we  shut  ourselves  off  and 
look  upon  ourselves  as  individual  physical 
beings,  we  give  birth  to  a  temporary  mode 
of  thought  that  might  well  be  termed 
mortal  mind,  or,  rather,  the  product  of 
mortal  mind.  But  it  is  at  first  natural,  and 
it  is  only  by  using  this  "mortal  mind"  that 
it  is  able  to  be  transformed,  and  hence  re- 
newed into  the  Divine  Mind.  So  by  wisely 
using  that  which  we  have,  the  natural,  we 
are  transformed  from  that  which  is  most 
apparent,  and  consequently  that  which  we 
think  we  are,  the  mortal,  the  physical,  into 
that  which  from  all  eternity  we  in  reality 
are,  and   never   except  in  our   own   minds 


EVER    KNOWN  13 

can  get  away  from,  —  the  Spiritual,  the 
Divine. 

It  is  through  this  instrumentality  that  the 
Divine  Life  within  us,  the  Divine  Life  with 
all  its  ever-ready-to-break-forth  glories  and 
powers,  is  enabled  to  be  changed  from  a 
mere  passive  and  hence  potential  actuality, 
and  to  burst  forth  into  the  full  splendours 
of  conscious,  active  life.  Surely,  then, 
thought  rightly  directed  and  rightly  used 
has  within  it  the  true  regenerating  and 
hence  redeeming  power;  through  it  and  it 
alone  are  we  able  to  make  for  ourselves  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  or,  rather,  by 
thus  finding  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
through  it  entering  into  the  conscious 
realisation  of  the  heavenly  state,  are  we 
able  to  make  for  ourselves  a  new  earth  by 
actualising  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  in  our 
lives  while  living  on  the  earth,  which,  when 
once  truly  realised,  can  never  be  lost. 

The  majority  of  people  are  not  awake;  it 
is  only  here  and  there  that  we  find  one 
even  partially  awake.  Practically  all  of  us, 
as  a  result,  are  living  lives  that  are  unworthy 
almost  the  name  of  lives,  compared  with 
those  we  might  be  living,  and  that  lie  within 


14         THE   GREATEST   THING 

our  easy  grasp.  While  it  is  true  that  each 
life  is  in  and  of  Divine  Being,  hence  always 
one  with  it,  in  order  that  this  great  fact  may 
bear  fruit  in  individual  lives,  each  one  must, 
as  we  have  already  said,  be  conscious  of  it, 
he  must  know  it  in  thought,  and  then  live 
continually  in  this  consciousness. 

An  eagle  has  been  chained  for  many 
months  to  the  perch  just  outside  his  cage; 
so  long  has  he  been  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  he  is  bound  by  the  little  silver  chain 
which  holds  him,  that  he  has  given  up  all 
efforts  to  escape,  almost  forgetting,  perhaps, 
that  the  power  of  flight  is  longer  his.  One 
day  a  link  of  the  little  chain  opens,  but, 
living  so  long  in  the  consciousness  that  he 
is  held  in  captivity,  he  makes  no  effort  to 
escape.  The  freedom  of  the  heavens  is  now 
his,  were  he  only  conscious  of  his  power. 
But  day  after  day  he  sits  sullenly  longing  for 
freedom,  but  remaining  a  captive  still.  One 
morning,  however,  he  ventures  a  little  farther 
out  on  his  perch  than  usual,  when  suddenly 
a  strange  consciousness  is  his — he  sets  his 
wings,  and  the  captivity  which  has  held  him 
for  months  will  perchance  know  him  no 
more  forever. 


EVER   KNOWN  15 

And  so  it  is  with  man.  On  account  of 
the  false  gods  that  tradition  and  prevailing 
theology  have  brought  him  he  knows  not 
himself,  and  not  knowing  himself  he  knows 
neither  his  powers  nor  his  possibilities.  The 
human  soul  is  held  captive.  An  opaque 
physical  structure  is  about  all  that  he  can 
be  said  truly  to  give  evidence  of.  The  day 
comes,  however,  when  in  his  thought  he 
moves  out  a  little  farther  than  is  usual,  then 
a  little  farther  and  a  little  farther.  The 
Inner  Light  is  now  moving  within,  he  catches 
at  first  a  little  glimpse  of  his  real  Essential 
Being,  then  a  little  more  and  a  little  more, 
and  by-and-by  the  fact  of  his  essential 
oneness  with  the  Infinite  Life  and  Power 
bursts  in  upon,  illumines,  and  takes  posses- 
sion of  his  soul.  In  bewilderment,  and  al- 
most afraid  to  utter  it  at  first,  he  cries  aloud, 
"O  God,  I  am  one  with  Thee!"  Enrap- 
tured by  this  new  consciousness,  he  holds  to 
the  thought  of  this  oneness,  and  living  con- 
tinually in  this  thought  his  life  forever  after 
flows  steadily  on  in  one  constant  realisation 
of  his  oneness  with  Divine  Being.  And  so 
"the  first  man,  [which]  is  of  the  earth 
earthy,"  is  changed  into  "the  second  man, 


i6        THE   GREATEST   THING 

[which]  is  the  Lord  from  Heaven,"  and  there- 
after the  Christ  sits  enthroned. 

Compared  with  the  new  life  that  he  is  now 
continually  living,  the  old  life  of  ignorance 
with  its  consequent  limitations,  which  can 
now  know  him  no  more  forever,  deserved 
only  the  name  of  death,  for,  in  a  sense,  he 
was  indeed  dead  unto  life,  and  only  he  who 
lives  in  the  conscious  realisation  of  his  one- 
ness with  the  One  and  Only  Life  can  be  said 
truly  to  be  born  into  Life.  He  is  born  into 
the  world  and  lives  in  the  world,  but  into 
consciously  real  and  eternal  Life  he  has  not 
yet  entered.  He  is  born  the  Adam  man, 
but  within  him  the  Christ  man  has  not 
awakened,  or,  rather,  he  has  not  yet  awak- 
ened to  the  Christ  within,  and  so  the  Christ 
man  is  not  yet  born,  and  sitting  therefore  in 
darkness  he  knows  not  yet  the  glorious 
realities  of  life. 

"I  am  thine  own  Spirit"  are  the  words 
that  the  Infinite  Father  by  means  of  the 
Inner  Voice  is  continually  speaking  to  every 
human  soul.  He  who  will  hear  can  hear, 
and  through  it  step  out  into  fulness  of  Hfe. 

We  hear  much  in  the  prevailing  crude  and 


EVER   KNOWN  17 

irrational  theology  in  regard  to  the  "  fall  of 
man " ;  but  it  is  only  as  man  has  departed 
from  the  Inner  Light,  and  gone  after  false 
man-made  gods,  that  anything  that  might 
rationally  be  termed  a  "  fall "  has  come  about. 
Separating  our  lives  in  thought  from  their 
oneness  with  Divine  Life  is  what  constitutes, 
and  what  alone  will  ever  constitute,  the  fall 
of  man.  But  the  teaching  that  has  come  to 
us  through  past  generations,  which  has  as  its 
dominant  keynote,  poor  worm  and  miserable 
sinner,  death  and  the  grave,  is  as  false  as  it 
is  pernicious  and  therefore  damnable  in  its 
influences.  These  old  thoughts  and  words 
have  had  the  influence  of  taking  heaven  out 
of  earth  and  populating  the  earth  with  doubt, 
and  error,  and  sin,  and  crime.  New  and 
true  thoughts  and  words  will  make  literally 
a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth. 

Man  is  essentially  Divine,  actually  part  of 
the  Infinite  God,  and  so,  essentially  good. 
When  he  severs  his  connection  in  conscious- 
ness with  the  Divine,  then  and  then  only  do 
doubt,  and  error,  and  sin,  and  crime,  with 
their  consequent  pain,  suffering,  disease,  and 
despair,  enter  into  his  life.  Only  a  pure  and 
radical  infidel — by  this  we  mean  one  who  is 

B 


i8         THE    GREATEST   THING 

in  reality  such,  for  there  are  many  who  are 
called  infidels,  even  by  many  avowed  re- 
ligionists, who  live  a  far  truer  religion  than 
they  themselves  live — can  rationally  hold  to 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  with  its  conse- 
quent poor  worm  and  miserable  sinner.  The 
religious  teacher  who  professes  to  believe  in 
God  as  the  One  Divine  and  Supreme  Being, 
and  at  the  same  time  holds  to  this  irrational 
doctrine,  is  many  times  more  a  disciple  of 
the  Devil,  whom  he  recognises  and  whose 
power  he  evidently  respects,  than  he  is  of 
the  Infinite  God  in  whom  he  professes  to 
believe.  He  and  he  alone  it  is  who  finds  a 
place  for  what  he  and  his  theology  term  the 
Devil.  The  one  who  truly  believes  in  God 
as  the  only  true  and  real  being  and  the 
source  of  all  life  and  power  can  indeed  find 
no  place  for  the  Devil.  He  sees  and  recog- 
nises the  evil  that  comes  from  lives  that  lose 
for  a  time  their  conscious  connection  with 
the  Supreme  Source  of  their  being,  but  he 
can  find  no  place  for  any  other  essential  and 
abiding  Reality. 

And  as  this  separation  from  God  is  made 
entirely  through  the  instrumentality  of  the 
mind,  he  sees  that  making  one's  conscious 


EVER   KNOWN  19 

connection  again  with  God — the  true  and 
only  true  redemption — must  also  be  through 
the  instrumentahty  of  the  mind.  BeHev- 
ing  in  the  God  in  whom  he  beHeves,  ay, 
knowing  the  God  whom  he  knows^  he  sees 
no  place  for  an  atonement  in  the  sense 
of  appeasing  the  wrath  of  an  angry  God. 
Knowing  the  God  whom  he  knows,  he 
shares  not  in  those  barbaric  notions.  He 
does  see,  however,  that  redemption  can  and 
must  come  through  living  in  the  con- 
scious at-one-ment  with  the  Father's  life. 
He  recognises  it  as  the  natural  method  that 
the  Adam  man  be  first  born,  with  freedom  of 
thought  and  consequently  freedom  of  action, 
and  that  from  him  the  Christ  man  then 
comes  forth  into  consciousness.  He  recog- 
nises that  it  is  God's,  and  consequently 
nature's  and  evolution's  method,  that  "the 
first  man  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  the  second 
man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven."  He  recog- 
nises the  fact  that  kittens  are  born  blind,  not 
because  their  parents  or  even  their  grand- 
parents sinned,  but  because  it  is  simply 
natural  for  them  to  be  born  blind,  and  that 
in  process  of  time  their  eyes  will  open.  He 
also  recognises  that,  on  account  of  our  limited 


.r^GiTYJ 


20         THE   GREATEST   THING 

comprehension,  the  "natural"  appears  first 
and  then  the  "spiritual,"  but  in  reality  the 
spiritual  is  from  the  very  first  incarnated 
within,  and  only  because  it  is,  can  it  in  pro- 
cess of  time,  either  sooner  or  later,  assume 
the  ascendency  by  changing  from  potential 
into  active  life. 

Once  in  a  while  there  comes  into  the 
world  one  who  from  the  very  first  recognises 
no  separation  of  his  life  from  the  Father's 
life,  and  who  dwells  continually  in  this  living 
realisation ;  and  by  bringing  anew  to  the 
world  this  great  fact,  and  showing  forth  the 
works  that  will  always  and  inevitably  follow 
this  realisation,  he  becomes  in  a  sense  a 
world's  saviour,  as  did  Jesus,  who,  through 
the  completeness  of  his  realisation  of  the 
Father's  life  incarnate  in  him,  became  the 
Christ  Jesus.  He  in  this  way  pointed  out 
to  the  world  how  all  men  can  enter  into 
the  realisation  of  the  Christ-life  and  thus 
be  saved  from  all  impulse  to  sin.  And  so 
instead  of  coming  to  appease  the  vengeance 
of  an  angry  God — difficult  for  one  who  has 
any  adequate  conception  of  God  even  to 
conceive  of — he  brought  to  the  world,  by 
exemplifying  in  his  own  life  as  well  as  by 


EVER    KNOWN  21 

teaching  to  all  who  will  hear  his  real  message^ 
the  method  whereby  all  of  us  can  enter  into 
the  full  and  complete  realisation  of  our  one- 
ness with  the  life  of  the  tender  and  loving 
Infinite  Father. 

Redeemed  from  the  bondage  of  the  senses 
through  which  alone  sin  comes,  and  born 
into  the  heavenly  state,  into  life  eternal,  is 
every  one  who  comes  into  the  same  relations 
with  the  Father,  and  hence  into  the  same 
realisation  of  his  oneness  with  the  Father's 
life,  that  Jesus  came  into.  It  is  difficult, 
however,  to  see  how  any  one  will  be  re- 
deemed from  the  bondage  of  sin  and  enter 
into  the  heavenly  state  simply  by  believing 
that  Jesus  entered  into  it  while  here.  No 
amount  of  believing  that  he  lived  the  life  he 
lived  will  take  any  one  into  the  heavenly 
state,  but  living  the  life  that  Jesus  lived  will 
take  every  one  who  lives  it  there,  in  any  age 
and  in  any  clime,  even  whether  or  not  he 
knows  that  such  a  man  as  Jesus  ever  lived. 

The  world  has  less  need  for  a  perverted 
and  hence  perverting  doctrine  of  "  vicarious 
atonement "  that  bodies  of  men  have  formu- 
lated by  either  intentionally  or  ignorantly 
dragging  the  teachings,  as  also  the  life,  of 


22         THE    GREATEST   THING 

the  Master  down  to  a  purely  material  inter- 
pretation—  less  need,  most  truly,  has  the 
world  for  this  perverting  doctrine  than  it 
has  for  the  great  vitalising  fact  of  a  con- 
scious, living  at-one-ment  with  the  Father's 
life,  as  every  one  whose  spiritual  sense  is 
at  all  unfolded  will  inevitably  get  from  the 
life  and  teachings  of  the  Master,  if  indeed 
he  is  more  interested  in  the  real  living  truth 
that  he  taught  than  he  is  in  the  almost 
numberless  man-made  theological  theories 
and  dogmas  regarding  it. 

In  order  that  we  may  ever  keep  our  stand- 
ing ground  clearly  in  mind,  let  us  now  gather 
into  a  single  view  the  substance  of  what  we 
have  endeavoured  thus  far  to  present. 

From  everlasting  to  everlasting  is  Being, 
self-existent,  without  beginning  and  without 
end.  Depending  upon  nothing  outside  of 
itself  and  the  essential  essence,  the  very  life 
of  all  that  through  it  comes  into  existence, 
it  is  therefore  Infinite  Being.  Existing  at 
first  as  pure  spirit,  it  is  therefore  Divine 
Being.  Literally  the  I  Am,  the  Divine 
Jehovah,  the  Infinite  God.  Then,  animated 
by  love  and  acting  through  its  own  volition, 


EVER   KNOWN  23 

it  projects  itself  into  existence  and  assumes 
the  various  forms  we  see  in  the  universe 
about  us,  including  ourselves.  But  by  the 
act  of  projecting  itself  into  existence,  the  In- 
finite Divine  Being  does  not  change  in  the 
least  its  essential  inner  nature,  as  indeed  it 
would  be  impossible  for  it  to  do.  What, 
then,  in  reality  is  there  in  existence?  Only 
Divine  Being,  the  Infinite  God  in  all  his 
manifold  manifestations;  and  thus  it  re- 
mains through  all  eternity,  as  must  neces- 
sarily be  from  its  very  nature,  and  otherwise 
it  could  not  be.  God,  then,  is  the  Infinite 
Being,  the  Infinite  Spirit  which  is  the 
essential  essence,  the  life  of  all,  which 
therefore  fills  all  the  universe  with  Himself 
alone,  so  that  all  is  He,  since  He  is  all. 

But  when  Divine  Being  incarnates  itself 
in  flesh  and  forms  for  its  use  a  physical 
body  —  a  human  body,  as  we  call  it  —  it 
necessarily  has  to  manifest  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  physical  senses,  and,  though 
Divine  Being  is  infinite,  the  vision  of  man 
is  limited,  and  for  a  time  his  true  inner  Life 
(always  Divine  Being)  is  concealed  from  him, 
for  he  naturally  interprets  everything  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  physical.      First  that 


24         THE   GREATEST   THING 

which  is  natural,  and  man  knows  himself 
only  as  a  natural  physical  being,  differing 
not  essentially  from  the  material  universe 
about  him.  As  he  looks  out,  however,  he 
sees  that  he  differs  from  other  forms  in  ex- 
istence, in  that  he  has  a  mind  through  which 
thought  is  engendered,  a  mind  that  grows  by 
using.  Then  contemplating  himself  and 
longing  for  the  truth  of  his  existence, 
gradually  there  dawns  upon  his  conscious- 
ness the  fact  that  his  life  is  Divine  Being, 
that  other  than  this  it  has  never  been — except 
in  his  own  mind  when  in  his  thought  he 
mistook  the  mere  physical  form  in  existence 
as  the  real  essential  life  itself,  thus  separating 
his  life  from  the  Infinite  Divine  Life.  He 
thus  realises  that  in  God  he  lives,  moves, 
and  has  his  being,  that  God  is  the  life 
of  his  life,  his  very  life  itself;  and  thus 
he  comes  in  time  into  the  conscious, 
living  realisation  of  his  oneness  with  the 
Infinite  Life  and  Power.  And  so  we  find 
it  true— first  the  natural  man,  then  the 
spiritual. 

Through  thought,  and  through  thought 
alone,  the  second  man,  the  Lord  from 
Heaven,   is   gradually   evolved   out    of   the 


EVER    KNOWN  25 

first  man,  which  is  of  the  earth  earthy. 
Through  a  perfectly  natural  process  of 
evolution,  out  of  the  first  man  Adam  — 
sense  perception  —  is  evolved  the  Christ 
man  —  Divine  self-realisation.  Impossible, 
however,  is  it  for  anything  to  be  evolved 
that  was  not  first  involved;  and  so  man 
finds  that  the  Lord  Christ  has  always  been 
within  and  he  has  known  it  not. 

It  is  the  same  to-day  as  it  was  many  years 
ago  with  Jacob  when  he  said,  "Surely  the 
Lord  is  in  this  place;  and  I  knew  it  not." 
This  and  all  that  followed  he  found  simply 
by  using  the  stones  of  the  place  where  he 
was;  for  with  the  stones  of  the  place  he 
made  for  himself  a  pillow,  and  it  was  while 
sleeping  on  this  pillow  that  he  beheld  the 
ladder  set  upon  the  earth  and  reaching  to 
the  heavens,  upon  which  the  angels  were 
ascending  and  descending,  and  thus  it  was 
that  he  entered  into  communion  with  the 
life  of  the  heavens.  Later,  then,  he  trans- 
formed the  pillow  into  a  pillar  that  served 
as  a  guide  to  other  men. 

And  so  with  every  human  soul — we  must 
use  simply  the  stones  of  the  place  where  we 
are.      The   only  stones  with  which   human 


26         THE    GREATEST   THING 

life  can  build  is  thought.  It  and  it  alone 
is  the  moulding,  the  creative  power  — 
earnest,  sincere  thought  of  the  place  where 
we  are,  this  constitutes  the  stones  of  the 
place  where  we  are  and  with  which  we 
can  make  a  pillow  upon  which  for  the 
time  being  to  rest.  Through  this  and  this 
alone  will  the  life  of  the  heavens  be 
opened  to  us ;  for  angels  ascending  — 
aspiration — will  in  time  bring  to  us  angels 
descending — inspiration.  Then  with  Jacob 
of  old  we  will  cry  out,  "  Behold,  the  Lord 
is  in  this  place;  and  I  knew  it  not." 
Then  our  pillow,  the  thought  that  gives 
us  the  knowledge  that  the  Infinite  Divine 
Life  is  always  within,  the  Essential  Essence 
of  the  human  soul  itself,  we  can  convert 
into  a  pillar,  a  pillar  that  will  be  a  guide 
to  lead  other  men  into  the  same  realisation 
and  life. 

And  so  the  entire  problem  of  human  life 
is  wonderfully  simple  and  easy  if  we  are 
but  true  to  the  highest  within  us,  and  keep 
ourselves  free  from  the  various  perplexing 
and  mystifying  theological  theories  and 
dogmas,  which  ordinarily  give  merely  a 
promise  of  spiritual  awakening,   realisation. 


EVER    KNOWN  27 

and  power  in  some  other  form  of  life, 
rather  than  actualising  it  here  and  now  in 
this  Hfe. 

But  only  as  man  becomes  conscious  of 
the  Lord  Christ  within,  only  as  he  becomes 
conscious, — realises  in  thought  that  he  is 
one  with  the  Infinite  Life  and  Power, — 
does  this  great  fact  become  a  moving  and 
mighty  force  in  the  affairs  of  his  daily  life. 
Until  this  is  true  he  remains  in  the  condition 
of  the  eagle,  which,  though  unchained,  think- 
ing nevertheless  that  he  was  still  chained, 
remained  in  captivity  when  the  freedom  of 
the  heavens  awaited  simply  the  spreading 
of  his  wings. 

Although  the  answer  to  our  title  has  been 
given  both  in  Imes  and  between  lines  long 
before  this,  it  may  be  an  aid  to  us, 
especially  in  making  practical  what  is  to 
follow,  to  put  it  as  best  we  can  into  a 
definite  form :  The  greatest  thing  ever 
known — indeed,  the  greatest  thing  that  ever 
can  be  known — is  that  in  our  real  essential 
nature  we  are  one  with  the  Infinite  Life 
and  Power,  and  that  by  coming  into,  and 
dwelling  continually  in,  the  conscious^  living 
realisation  of  this  great  fact,  we  enable  to 


28         THE   GREATEST   THING 

be  manifested  unto  us  and  actualised  within 
us  the  qualities  and  powers  of  the  Divine 
Life,  and  this  in  the  exact  degree  of  the 
completeness  of  this  realisation  on  our 
part. 


EVER   KNOWN  29 


II 

DIVINE   ENERGIES    IN    EVERY-DAY   LIFi 

A  ND  what,  let  us  ask,  is  the  result  and 
hence  the  value  of  this  realisation  ? 
For  unless  it  is  of  value  in  the  affairs  of 
every-day  life,  it  is  then  a  mere  dead 
theory,  and  consequently  of  no  real  value. 
Use  must  be  the  final  test  of  everything, 
and  if  it  has  no  actual  use,  or  if  no  visible 
results  follow  its  use,  we  had  better  not 
spend  time  with  it,  for  it  is  then  not 
founded  upon  truth. 

First,  let  it  be  said,  it  is  not  the  mere 
intellectual  recognition,  merely  the  dead 
theory,  but  the  conscious,  vital  and  living 
realisation  of  this  great  truth,  that  makes  it 
of  value,  and  that  makes  it  show  forth  in 
the  affairs  of  every-day  life.  This  it  is,  and 
this  alone,  that  gives  true  blessedness,  for 
this  is  none  other  than  the  finding  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  when  this  is  once 
found  and  lived  in,  all  other  things  literally 
and  necessarily  follow.      Through   this   the 


3Q        THE   GREATEST   THING 

qualities  and  powers  of  the  Divine  Life  are 
more  and  more  realised  and  actualised,  and 
through  their  leading  we  are  led  into  the 
possession  of  all  other  things. 

He  who  comes  into  this  full  and  living 
realisation  of  his  oneness  with  the  Divine 
Life  is  brought  at  once  into  right  relations 
with  himself,  with  his  fellow-men,  and  with 
the  laws  of  the  universe  about  him.  He 
lives  now  in  the  inner,  the  real  life,  and 
whatever  is  in  the  interior  must  necessarily 
take  form  in  the  exterior,  for  all  life  is 
from  within  out.  There  is  no  true  life  in 
regard  to  which  this  law  does  not  hold. 
And  if  the  will  of  God  is  done  in  the 
inward  life,  then  is  it  necessarily  done  in 
all  things  of  the  outward  life,  and  the 
results  are  always  manifest.  Thus  and 
thus  alone  it  is  that  men  have  become 
prophets,  seers,  and  saviours ;  they  have 
become  what  the  world  calls  the  "elect" 
of  God,  because  in  their  own  lives  they 
first  elected  God  and  lived  their  lives  in 
His  life.  And  thus  it  is  that  to-day  men 
can  become  prophets,  seers,  and  saviours, 
for  the  laws  of  the  Divine  Life  and  the 
relations  of  what  we  term   the  human  life 


EVER   KNOWN  31 

to  it  are  identically  the  same  to-day  as 
they  have  been  in  all  time  past  and  will 
be  in  all  time  to  come.  The  Divine  Being 
changes  not;  it  is  man  alone  who  changes. 

It  is  solely  by  virtue  of  man's  leaving 
the  inner  life  of  the  spirit  and  thus  depart- 
ing from  God,  or  by  virtue  of  his  not  yet 
finding  this  real  life,  that  sin  and  error, 
pain  and  disease,  fears  and  forebodings, 
have  crept  as  naturally  and  as  necessarily 
as  that  effect  follows  cause  into  his  life ; 
only  by  closing  his  eyes  to  the  inner  light, 
by  shutting  his  ears  to  the  inner  voice, 
that,  although  he  has  eyes  to  see,  yet  he 
sees  not,  and,  although  he  has  ears  to  hear, 
yet  he  hears  not.  And  it  is  only  by  unit- 
ing his  life  with  the  Divine  Life,  and  thus 
living  again  the  life  of  the  spirit,  that  these 
things  will  go,  even  as  they  have  come. 

All  the  evil,  unhappiness,  misery,  and 
want  in  the  world  are  attributable  to  man, 
and  are  the  direct  results  of  his  taking  his 
life,  either  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  out  of  harmony 
with  the  Power  that  works  for  righteousness 
and  consequently  for  wholeness  and  perfec- 
tion.    And   when   our   life   is   lived   in  the 


32        THE   GREATEST   THING 

life  of  God,  and  God's  will  therefore 
becomes  our  will,  all  is  and  necessarily 
must  be  well  with  us,  for  contrary  to  His 
will  it  is  impossible  that  anything  should 
ever  come  to  pass.  And  thus  it  is  that  he 
who  seeks  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness  shall  have  all  other  things 
added  unto  him.  The  soul,  the  real  life, 
is  Divine,  and  by  allowing  it  to  become 
translucent  to  Infinite  Spirit  by  living  con- 
tinually in  this  conscious  union  with  Divine 
Being  it  reveals  all  things  to  us.  Things 
become  hidden,  mysteries  fill  and  un- 
certainties pervade  life  only  as  we  turn 
away  from  the  inner  light  and  life;  there 
is  nothing  that  is  hidden  of  itself;  to  God 
all  things  are  known,  and  he  who  con- 
sciously lives  his  life  in  the  life  of  God 
sees  with  the  Divine  vision  that  reveals  all 
things  to  him.  He  who  lives  continually 
under  this  Divine  guidance  enters  thereby 
into  the  realm  of  the  highest  wisdom,  and 
even  in  the  most  trivial  things  of  every-day 
life  he  never  finds  himself  in  a  state  of 
doubt  or  perplexity,  for  he  always  knows 
what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it. 

He  has  no  regrets   for  the  past,  because 


EVER   KNOWN 


33 


before  he  entered  into  his  present  conscious- 
ness he  was  in  a  sense  dead  unto  life,  and 
all  regrets  that  he  might  have  for  the  past 
'are  now  swallowed  up  in  the  joys  that  the 
new  birth  that  has  brought  him  into  fulness 
of  life  continually  spreads  before  his  every 
step.  He  has  neither  fears  nor  forebodings 
in  regard  to  the  future,  for  he  knows  that 
contrary  to  God's  will,  which  is  now  his 
will,  nothing  can  ever  come  to  pass.  Peace, 
therefore,  a  full  and  abiding  peace,  is  con- 
tinually his. 

As  all  life  is  from  within  out,  and  as  this 
is  absolutely  true  in  regard  to  the  physical 
body,  the  fountain  of  Divine  Life  that  has 
been  opened  up  within  him,  which  of  itself 
can  admit  of  no  disease  or  imperfection  of 
any  kind,  will  allow  only  healthy  conditions 
to  be  externalised  in  his  body;  and  where 
unhealthy  conditions  have  been  built  into  it 
before  his  entrance  into  the  new  life,  the  life 
that  now  courses  through  it  will  in  time 
drive  them  out  by  entirely  replacing  the 
diseased  structure  with  that  which  is  pure 
and  whole. 

A  continually  growing  sense  of  power  is 
his,  for  he  is  now  working  in  conjunction 
C 


34         THE   GREATEST   THING 

with  the  Infinite  God,  and  with  God  all 
things  are  possible.  In  material  things  he  is 
not  lacking,  for  all  things  are  from  this  one 
Infinite  Source,  and,  guided  by  the  Divine 
Wisdom  and  sustained  by  the  Divine  Power 
that  are  now  his,  in  a  perfectly  natural  and 
normal  way  he  finds  that  an  abundance  of 
all  things  is  his,  always  in  hand  in  sufficient 
time  to  supply  all  his  material  needs,  and 
never  is  there  lack  when  the  time  comes,  if 
he  simply  does  each  day  what  his  hands 
find  to  do.  Sure  always  of  this  unfailing 
source  of  supply,  he  does  not  give  himself 
to  the  accumulation  ai  d  the  hoarding  of 
great  material  possessions,  thereby  robbing 
and  enslaving  the  real  life. 

His  thoughts  grow  more  and  more  into 
the  nature  of  their  Divine  Source,  and  as 
thoughts  are  forces^  and  as  in  the  degree  that 
they  are  spiritualised  do  they  become  ever 
more  effective  in  their  operations,  so  through 
their  instrumentality  is  he  able  to  mould 
more  and  more  effectively  the  every-day 
conditions  of  life.  And  so  as  he  enters  into 
this  new  Hfe  he  finds  that  all  things  of  the 
outer  life  fall  into  line ;  for  as  is  the  inner^ 
so  always  and  necessarily  is  the  outer. 


EVER   KNOWN  35 

These  truths  will  come  as  new  revelations 
to  many,  and  again  to  many  they  will  come 
merely  as  agents  to  strengthen  and  possibly 
to  arouse  to  renewed  life  the  realisations  of 
which  they  are  already  more  or  less  con- 
scious. In  themselves,  however,  they  are  not 
new,  but  as  old  as  the  world.  They  are  the 
real  spirit  of  true  Christianity,  not,  how- 
ever, of  the  Christianity  that  the  majority  of 
people  conventionally  hold,  which  in  many 
respects  is  as  radically  inconsistent  as  it  is 
void  of  results,  but  the  great  transcendent 
truths  of  our  relations  with  the  Father's  life 
that  Jesus  taught. 

They  are  likewise  the  real  essential  spirit 
of  all  the  great  religions  of  the  world,  and  as 
all  religions  in  their  purity  are  from  the  same 
source, — God  speaking  through  the  minds  of 
those  who  have  come  into  a  sufficient  union 
with  Him  to  hear  and  to  interpret  His  voice, 
the  one  universal  source  of  all  true  inspira- 
tion and  all  true  revelation, — so  far  as  their 
fundamental  principles  are  concerned  they 
are  necessarily  the  same. 

And  the  great  spiritual  awakening,  the 
beginnings  of  which  we  are  witnessing  in 
all   parts   of  the  world   to-day,   is  evidence 


36         THE   GREATEST  THING 

that  the  Divine  Breath  is  stirring  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  and  women  in  a 
manner  such  as  it  has  rarely  if  ever  stirred 
before.  Men  and  women  are  literally  find- 
ing God.  They  are  breaking  through  the 
mere  letter  and  form  of  an  old  and  too-long- 
held  ecclesiastical  theorising  and  dogmatism 
into  the  real  vital  spirit  of  the  religion  of 
the  living  and  transcendent  God.  They  are 
waking  here  and  there  and  everywhere  to 
the  realisation  of  their  oneness  with  the 
living  God.  Their  lives  are  being  com- 
pletely filled  with  this  realisation,  and  as 
a  consequence  they  are  showing  forth  the 
works  of  God. 

They  are  leaving  the  old  one-day-in-seven, 
some-other-world  religion,  and  they  are  find- 
ing the  joys  as  well  as  the  practicability  of 
an  every-day,  this-world  religion.  They  are 
passing  out  of  the  religion  of  death  and 
possible  glory  hereafter,  into  the  religion  of 
life  and  joy  and  glory  here  and  now,  to-day 
and  every  day,  as  well  as  hereafter  and  for- 
evermore.  With  this  new  religion  of  the 
living  God  and  the  spiritual  power  that 
through  it  is  being  made  active  in  their 
lives,    they    are    moulding   in   detail   all    of 


EVER    KNOWN  37 

the  affairs  of  every-day  life,  proving  thereby 
that  their  rehgion  is  the  reHgion  of  Hfe. 
And  any  system  of  reHgion  that  does  not 
enable  its  possessor  to  do  this  is  simply  not 
religion,  and  we  should  no  longer  desecrate 
the  word  by  applying  it  to  any  such  hollow 
mockeries. 

To  this  old  semblance  of  religion  those 
who  are  thus  entering  into  this  new  and 
larger  religion  of  life  will  never  return,  nor 
can  they,  any  more  than  the  chick  can  enter 
within  the  confines  of  its  shell  again  after 
it  has  been  once  born  into  life.  Having 
found  the  pearl,  the  shell  for  them  must 
perish ;  or  rather,  as  it  is  of  no  farther  value 
to  them,  it  perishes  simply  by  the  operation 
of  natural  law.  Centred  thus  in  the  Infinite, 
working  now  in  conscious  harmony  with 
Divine  forces,  they  ever  after  rule  the  world 
from  within. 


38         THE    GREATEST   THING 
III 

THE    master's    great    BUT    LOST    GIFT 

'T^HE  conclusions  we  have  arrived  at  thus 
far  we  have  arrived  at  independently 
of  any  authority  outside  of  our  own  reason 
and  insight.  It  is  always  of  interest  as  well 
as  of  greater  or  less  value  to  compare  our 
own  conclusions  with  those  of  others  whose 
opinions  we  value.  It  would  indeed  be  a 
matter  of  exceeding  great  interest  to  com- 
pare those  we  have  reached  with  those  of 
a  number  whose  opinions  come  with  greater 
or  less  authority  to  all  the  world.  Space 
dots  not  permit  this,  however,  and  I  propose 
that  we  give  the  balance  of  our  time  to  the 
consideration,  though  necessarily  brief  con- 
sideration, of  two  such ;  one  universally 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  highly  illumined 
teachers,  if  not  the  most  highly  illumined, 
the  world  has  ever  known,  the  Christ  Jesus; 
the  other  universally  rcL^arded  as  one  of  the 
most  highly  illumined  philosophers  the  world 
has    ever  known,    the    philosopher    Fichte. 


EVER   KNOWN  39 

And  in  these  two  we  have  the  advantage  of 
the  life  and  teachings  of  one  who  Hved  and 
taught  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  ago, 
and  one  who  lived  and  taught  a  trifle  less 
than  a  hundred  years  ago.  By  selecting 
these,  let  it  also  be  said,  we  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  two  whose  lives  fully  manifested 
the  truth  of  that  which  they  taught. 

In  considering  the  life  and  teachings  of 
Jesus,  let  us  consider  them  not  as  dull  ex- 
positors interpret  and  represent  them,  but 
as  he  himself  gave  them  to  the  world. 
Certainly  Jesus  was  Divine;  but  he  was 
Divine,  as  he  himself  clearly  taught,  in  just 
the  same  sense  that  you  and  I  and  every 
human  soul  is  Divine.  He  differed  from  us, 
however,  in  that  he  had  come  into  a  far 
clearer  and  fuller  realisation  of  his  divinity 
than  we  have  come  into,  as  indeed  his  life  so 
clearly  indicates.  Jesus  was  God  manifest 
in  the  flesh,  as  indeed  every  one  must  be 
who  comes  into  the  full  realisation  of  his 
oneness  with  God,  as  Jesus  himself  again  so 
clearly  taught. 

In  the  thoroughly  absurd,  illogical,  and 
positively  demoralising  doctrine  of  "vicarious 
atonement,"  as  given   us   by   early   ecclesi- 


40        THE   GREATEST  THING 

astical  bodies  by  perverting  the  real  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  even  to  the  extent  of  calHng 
interpolations  in  the  New  Testament  to  their 
aid,  we  certainly  cannot  believe.  Many  do, 
however,  believe  that  it  has  done  more  harm 
to  the  real  teachings  of  Jesus,  has  been  more 
productive  of  scepticism  and  infidelity,  than 
all  other  causes  combined.  It  is  a  doctrine 
that  can  be  formulated  only  by  those  who 
have  no  spiritual  insight  themselves,  and 
who  therefore  drag  the  teachings  of  the 
Master  down  to  a  purely  material  interpreta- 
tion because  of  their  inability  to  give  them 
the  spiritual  interpretation  that  he  intended 
they  should  have. 

If  his  mission  was  not  that  of  vicarious 
atonement,  not  for  the  purpose  of  appeasing 
the  wrath  and  indignation  of  an  angry  God 
and  thus  reconciling  Him  to  His  children, 
what  then  was  it  ?  Clearly  his  mission  was 
that  of  a  Redeemer  as  he  gave  himself  out 
to  be — a  Redeemer  to  bring  the  children  of 
men  back  to  their  Father.  And  how  did  he 
purpose  to  do  this  ?  Clearly  by  having  them 
consciously  unite  their  lives  with  the  Father's 
life,  even  as  he  had  united  his.  The  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness  is  not  only 


EVER    KNOWN  41 

what  he  came  to  teach,  but  what  he  clearly 
and  unmistakably  taught. 

That  he  plainly  and  unequivocally  taught 
his  disciples  that  this  was  his  mission  is 
evidenced  by  numerous  sentences  such  as 
the  following,  occurring  all  through  the 
gospels:  Matt.  iv.  23,  "jesus  went  about 
in  all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues 
and  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom," 
etc.  .  .  .  Luke  viii.  i,  "He  went  about 
through  cities  and  villages,  preaching  and 
bringing  the  good  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of 
God."  .  .  .  Luke  iv.  43,  "But  he  said 
unto  them :  I  must  preach  the  good  tidings 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities  also, 
for  therefore  was  I  sentT  .  .  .  Luke  ix.  2, 
"And  he  sent  them  forth  to  preach  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  to  heal  the  sick."  .  .  . 
Matt.  xxiv.  14,  "And  this  gospel  of  the 
kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 
world,  for  a  testimony  unto  all  nations,"  etc. 
...  In  more  than  thirty  places  in  the  first 
three  gospels  do  we  find  Jesus  thoroughly 
explaining  to  his  disciples  his  especial 
mission — to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  even 
before  he  entered  upon  his  public  work,  we 


42         THE    GREATEST   THING 

hear  John  the  Baptist  going  before  him  and 
sa)  ing,  "  Repent  ye ;  for  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand." 

What  did  Jesus  mean  by  the  kingdom  of 
God,  or,  as  he  sometimes  expressed  it,  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven?  As  an  answer,  and 
an  answer  better  than  any  speculations  in 
regard  to  it,  let  us  again  take  his  own  words : 
"  Neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here !  or,  Lo 
there !  for,  behold,  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
within  you."  He  taught  only  what  he  him- 
self had  found,  the  conscious  union  with  the 
Father's  life  as  the  one  and  all-inclusive 
thing.  Witii  Jesus  from  the  very  first,  only 
in  union  with  God  was  there  reality.  And 
this  life  in  the  Father's  life  seemed  nothing 
at  all  marvellous  to  him;  it  was  perfecdy 
natural,  and  the  only  life  he  knew.  Hence 
he  could  not  say  otherwise  than  that  he  and 
the  Father  were  one.  His  vision  was  so 
clear  and  his  already  realised  Divine  life  was 
so  full  and  complete,  that  he  knew  that  it 
was  utterly  impossible  for  his  life  to  be  with- 
out the  Father's  life,  as  we  indeed  shall 
know  when  our  vision  becomes  clear  and 
we  enter  into  the  same  fully  realised  union 
with  it. 


EVER    KNOWN  43 

This  great  knowledge  came  to  Jesus  not 
through  intellectual  speculation  and  still  less 
through  any  communication  from  without; 
it  came  to  him  through  his  own  interior 
consciousness ;  to  all  appearances  he  was 
born  with  it.  He  was  born  with  a  peculiar 
aptitude  for  discerning  things  of  the  Spirit, 
just  as  among  us  some  are  born  with  a 
peculiar  aptitude  for  one  thing  and  others 
for  other  things.  But  so  great  was  this 
power  naturally  in  Jesus  that  in  it  we  may 
justly  say  he  had  a  great  advantage  over  most 
people  born  into  the  world,  and  for  this 
reason  was  he  all  the  more  able  and  all  the 
greater  reason  was  there  for  him  to  be  one 
of  the  great  world  Teachers  and  hence 
Redeemers.  He  was  indeed  Immanuel — • 
God  with  us. 

Jesus,  I  repeat,  never  speaks  of  his  life  in 
any  other  connection  than  as  one  with  the 
Father's  life. 

In  reply  to  a  question  from  Thomas  in 
the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John,  he  says,  "  If 
ye  had  known  me,  ye  would  have  known 
my  Father  also :  from  henceforth  ye  know 
him  and  have  seen  him."  Philip,  who  was 
standing   near,   unable   to    comprehend   the 


44         THE   GREATEST   THING 

interior  meaning  of  the  Master's  words,  said 
unto  him  :  "  Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and 
it  sufficeth  us."  Jesus,  somewhat  surprised 
that  he  had  not  made  himself  clear  to  them, 
replied :  ''  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with 
you,  and  dost  thou  not  know  me,  Philip? 
He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father ; 
how  sayest  thou,  Show  us  the  Father?  Be- 
lievest  thou  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and 
the  Father  in  me  ?  The  words  I  speak  unto 
you  I  speak  not  from  myself :  but  the  Father 
abiding  in  me  doeth  His  work.  Believe  me 
that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in 
me  :  or  believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake." 
But  if  his  especial  mission  was  to  preach 
the  good  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
why,  I  hear  it  asked,  did  he  claim  that  only 
through  him  can  we  come  unto  the  kingdom, 
as  he  indeed  says  in  his  conversation  with 
Philip  and  Thomas  immediately  preceding 
the  part  just  quoted :  "  I  am  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life  ;  no  one  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  me.'  Simply  because  it  was 
the  living  truth  that  he  brought,  which  was 
and  evermore  is  to  redeem  men  by  uniting 
them  in  mind  and  heart  with  the  Father. 
His  realised  oneness  with  the  Father's  life 


EVER   KNOWN  45 

was  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  and 
only  by  going  over  the  same  path  that  he 
himself  had  trod  can  anyone  be  truly  united 
with  the  Father.  He  found  this  great,  vital 
and  redeeming  truth  nowhere  else  in  the 
world ;  he  had  to  speak  as  one  standing 
alone,  and  in  this  sense  he  spoke  most  truly 
and  most  literally  when  he  said,  "  No  one 
Cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me."  And 
in  order  to  point  out  his  life,  his  realised 
oneness  with  the  Father's  life,  as  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life,  he  spoke  and  indeed 
had  to  speak  as  he  did,  even  at  the  risk  of 
being  misunderstood  and  having  his  words 
taken  in  a  purely  material  sense,  as  was  the 
tendency  of  the  spiritual  poverty  of  the  age, 
and  indeed  as  his  very  disciples  so  often 
.interpreted  his  words,  as  we  have  but 
recently  seen.  In  order  to  give  forth  the 
spiritual  teachin^^s  which  he  gave,  he  had 
to  use  the  language  and  the  illustrations 
that  their  material  minds  could  grasp,  and 
in  this  way  make  his  teachings  doubly  liable' 
to  a  purely  material  interpretation. 

"I  am  the  bread  of  life,"  said  he  to  those 
assembled  about  him ;  "  your  fathers  did  eat 
the  manna  in  the  wilderness,  and  they  died. 


46        THE   GREATEST   THING 

This  is  the  bread  which  cometh  down  out  of 
heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof,  and  not 
die.  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down 
out  of  heaven  :  if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread, 
he  shall  live  forever :  yea,  and  the  bread 
which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  for  the  life  of 
the  world."  The  Jews  taking  his  words  in  a 
material  sense  argued  one  with  another  and 
said :  "  How  can  this  man  give  us  his  flesh 
to  eat  ?  "  Jesus  simply  reaffirmed  his  state- 
ment, saying :  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not  life  in 
yourselves.  .  .  .  For  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed, 
and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed."  Literally, 
"  My  flesh  is  the  true  food,  and  my  blood  is 
the  true  drink.  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  blood  abideth  in  me  and  I  in 
him.  As  the  living  Father  sent  me,  and  I 
live  because  of  the  Father,  so  he  that  eateth 
me,  he  also  shall  live  because  of  me." 

And  many  of  his  disciples,  even,  when 
they  heard  him  speaking  in  this  way,  said 
among  themselves,  "This  is  a  hard  saying; 
who  can  hear  him  ?  " — who  can  understand 
him  ?  Jesus,  quickly  perceiving  that  they  were 
again  dragging  his  words  down  to  a  material 


EVER   KNOWN  47 

interpretation,  asked  them  if  what  he  had 
just  said  caused  them  to  stumble,  and  then^ 
in  order  that  they  get  his  real  meanings  he 
said,  "  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth ;  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing :  the  words  that  I 
have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit  and  are  Hfe." 
And  so  all  except  those  who  are  wholly 
spiritually,  not  to  say  even  mentally,  blind, 
can  readily  see  that  what  Jesus  meant  to  say, 
and  what  he  actually  did  say,  was,  the  words 
that  he  spoke  to  them  of  his  oneness  with  the 
Father's  life  were  the  true  meat  and  the  true 
drink,  of  which,  unless  a  man  ate  and  drank, 
he  had  not  life  in  himself,  but  that  these 
were  able  to  give  him  life  and  life  eternal. 

"  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him."  Or, 
reversing  the  expression.  He  that  dwelleth 
in  me  and  I  in  him,  he  it  is  that  eateth 
my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood.  "The 
words  that  I  have  spoken  unto  you,  (they) 
are  spirit  and  (they)  are  life."  "As  the 
living  Father  hath  sent  me,  and  I  live  be- 
cause of  the  Father,  so  he  that  eateth  me, 
he  also  shall  live  because  of  me."  In  the 
words  of  another,^  "To  eat  his   flesh   and 

1  Fichte  in  "The  Way  towards  the  Blessed  Life." 


48         THE   GREATEST   THING 

drink  his  blood  means  to  become  wholly 
and  entirely  he  himself;  to  become  alto- 
gether changed  into  his  person  without  re- 
serve or  limitation  ;  to  be  a  faithful  repetition 
of  him  in  another  personality;  to  be  tran- 
substantiated with  him,  />.,  as  he  is  the 
Eternal  Word  made  flesh  and  blood,  to 
become  his  flesh  and  blood,  and  what 
follows  from  that,  and  indeed  is  the  same 
thing,  to  become  the  very  Eternal  Word 
made  flesh  and  blood  itself;  to  think  wholly 
and  entirely  like  him,  and  so  as  if  he  him- 
self thought  and  not  we ;  to  live  wholly  and 
entirely  like  him,  and  so  as  if  he  himself 
lived  in  our  life.  As  surely  as  you  do  not 
now  attempt  to  drag  down  my  own  words, 
and  reduce  them  to  the  narrow  meaning 
that  Jesus  is  only  to  be  imitated,  as  an 
unattainable  pattern,  partially  and  at  a  dis- 
tance, as  far  as  human  weakness  will  allow, 
but  accept  them  in  the  sense  in  which  I 
have  spoken  them,  that  we  must  be  trans- 
formed into  Christ  himself,  so  surely  will 
it  become  evident  to  you  that  Jesus  could 
not  well  have  expressed  himself  otherwise, 
and  that  he  actually  did  express  himself 
excellently  well.     Jesus  was  very  far  from 


EVER   KNOWN  49 

representing  himself  as  that  unattainable 
ideal  into  which  he  was  first  transformed 
by  the  spiritual  poverty  of  the  after-ages; 
nor  did  his  apostles  so  regard  him." 

To  live  in  Christ  is  to  live  the  life  he 
lived,  by  living  in  the  truth  in  which  he 
lived  and  which  he  taught.  The  one  great 
truth  in  which  he  continually  lived  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  that  only  in  conscious  union 
with  God  is  there  any  real  life,  and  therefore 
we  can  readily  see  why  he  continually  gave 
out,  as  the  Gospel  writers  tell  us  so  many 
times  he  did,  that  his  especial  «nission  was 
to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Were  it  not  possible  for  us  to  live 
the  same  life  that  he  lived,  he  certainly 
would  not  have  taught  what  he  taught. 
This  wonderful  life  of  fully  realised  Divine 
life  Jesus  claims  not  for  himself  alone,  but 
for  all  who  actually  live  in  the  truth  that 
he  taught. 

It  was  not  to  establish  any  material  in- 
stitution, as  the  church,  that  Jesus  made  his 
mission,  but  that  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness  should  become  actualised 
and  hold  sway  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
men  —  this    was    his    mission,   an    entirely 


50        THE   GREATEST   THING 

different  thing  from  the  founding  of  a 
material  organisation.  Paul  and  his  party, 
sharing  the  then  prevailing  ideas  that  a 
material  kingdom  was  to  be  established, 
were  the  originators  of  the  church,  not 
Jesus.  We  find  the  word  "church"  men- 
tioned in  the  four  Gospels  by  Jesus  only 
once  or  twice,  and  then  only  in  an  incidental 
way,  while  we  find  the  kingdom  mentioned 
over  thirty  times  in  the  first  three  Gospels 
alone. 

As  we  have  already  pointed  out,  had  it 
been  his  purpose  to  establish  a  material 
organisation,  then  he  certainly  would  not 
have  given  it  out  that  something  else  was 
his  especial  purpose.  But  when  the  material 
organisation,  the  church,  purely  a  man-made 
institution,  was  established,  the  early  church 
fathers  bringing  even  interpolations  of  the 
Holy  Word  to  their  aid  in  establishing  it 
and  some  of  its  various  observations, — as 
modern  scholarship  has  already  so  clearly 
discovered,  and  as  it  is  continually  discover- 
ing,— the  following  ages,  thinking  that  they 
had  an  institution  to  keep  up,  gradually  lost, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  the  real  spiritual 
teachings  of  the  Master  in  their  zeal  to  keep 


EVER    KNOWN  51 

up  the  form  of  an  institution  with  which  he 
had  nothing  to  do.  And  those  long  and 
bitter  persecutions  of  the  church  in  the 
early  and  middle  ages,  as  well  as  the  long 
list  of  crimes  sanctioned  and  committed 
directly  by  the  church  of  the  middle  ages, 
show  that  they  had  not  the  real  truth ;  for 
those  who  live  in  the  truth  and  have  it 
uppermost  in  their  minds  and  hearts  never 
persecute  —  only  those  who  are  on  either 
uncertain  or  false  ground,  and  whose  en- 
deavour it  is  to  keep  up  the  form  of  an 
institution  which  they  feel  would  otherwise 
fall  to  the  ground. 

No,  true  religion  has  never  been  known 
either  to  persecute  or  to  show  intolerance 
of  any  kind.  Throughout  the  whole  history 
of  the  churches'  heresies  and  persecutions, 
the  persecuted  party  has  ever  occupied  a 
correspondingly  higher  and  the  persecuting 
party  a  lower  position,  the  persecuting  party 
continually  fighting  as  it  were  for  life.  But 
the  real  truth  that  Jesus  taught  will  not 
cause  nor  will  it  even  permit  persecutions — 
hence  we  find  the  latter  only  where  there 
is  the  lack  of  the  former. 

And  again,  the  real  truth  that  Jesus  taught 


52         THE   GREATEST   THING 

will  not  admit  of  divisions,  much  less  of 
intolerance,  for  all  real  truth  is  exact  truth, 
and  in  regard  to  it  there  can  be  no  differ- 
ences, and  our  modern  theologians,  and  our 
churches  of  to-day,  which  get  their  form 
and  life  from  the  speculations  and  theories 
of  the  former,  certainly  have  not  the  real 
truth  that  Jesus  taught,  for  they  are  divided 
in  various  directions  on  practically  every 
dogma  that  they  seek  to  promulgate.  And 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  heresy  trials,  with 
all  their  absurd  attendant  features,  are  not 
entirely  unknown  even  yet  to-day.  But  in 
Jesus'  own  words,  "A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand."  And  so  if  the  church 
of  to-day  wants  to  stand  as  a  real  power  in 
the  world,  or  if  indeed  it  wants  to  stand  at 
all,  it  must  either  get  back  to,  or  it  must  come 
up,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  the  real  living 
truth  that  Jesus  lived  and  taught.  Unless 
it  does  this  it  will  inevitably  lose  its  hold 
on  the  people  even  more  rapidly  than  it  is 
losing  it  to-day.  And  certainly  the  younger 
ones  whom  it  does  not  yet  hold  will  not  be 
drawn  to  it,  when  they  can  turn  to  that  which 
has  a  thousand-fold  more  of  truth  and  hence 
of  life-giving  power  than  it  has  to  offer. 


EVER   KNOWN  53 

That  this  is  not  a  mere  sentiment  on  our 
part  is  evidenced  by  the  wonderful  rapidity 
with  which  the  "  New  Thought "  movement 
— would  that  we  could  designate  what  we 
mean  without  using  any  term — which  has, 
as  its  underlying  truth,  this  conscious  union 
with  the  Divine  Life  and  the  actualised 
powers  attendant  upon  it  as  Jesus  taught, — 
hence  not  a  new  discovery,  but  a  recovery, 
— is  growing  in  America,  in  England,  to  be 
brief,  in  practically  every  civilised  country 
in  the  world.  Thousands  every  year  in  our 
own  and  in  other  countries  are  finding  in 
it  the  joys  of  the  realised  Divine  Life,  and 
are  turning  to  it  from  that  which  but  poorly 
feeds  them ;  and  that  this  also  is  no  mere 
sentiment  on  our  part  is  evidenced  by  the 
contents  of  a  letter  recently  sent  by  a  noted 
divine  in  high  official  standing  in  the  church 
in  England  to  a  noted  American  preacher, 
in  which  he  said,  in  substance,  that  the 
church  in  England  is  literally  honeycombed 
by  the  "  New  Thought "  movement,  and 
asked  that  he  might  have  sent  a  list  of  the 
best  books  that  had  already  appeared  in 
America  along  the  lines  indicated. 

And  so  what  we  need  tg-day  is  the  same 


54         THE    GREATEST   THING 

as  what  the  word  is  eagerly  calling  for,  the 
life-giving  power  of  the  great  central  truth 
that  the  Master  taught,  and  not  the  various 
theories  and  speculations  in  regard  to  his 
origin,  his  birth,  his  life,  and  the  meaning  of 
his  teachings.  And  still  less,  the  fabrications 
of  the  early  fathers  in  regard  to  inherited  sin, 
original  sin,  vicarious  atonement,  and  their 
belie ve-and-be-saved  doctrine,  and  the  al- 
ternative doctrine,  fail  to  believe  that  which 
is  opposed  to  all  reason,  all  common-sense, 
all  real  mercy,  as  well  as  all  true  justice,  and 
be  damned,  be  forever  and  eternally  lost. 

Jesus  is  indeed  a  lamb  of  God  that  taketh 
away  the  sins  of  the  world,  but  he  takes  tlicm 
away  by  bringing  to  the  world  the  truth  that 
shall  make  men  free.  Hence  it  is  through 
his  life  and  the  truth  that  he  lived  and 
taught,  not  through  his  death  and  the 
observance  of  the  various  ceremonies  and 
forms  that  have  grown  up  around  it.  Those 
who  are  aided  by  symbols — and  I  am  aware 
of  the  fact  that  for  some,  many  hallowed 
associations  are  connected  with  them — may 
do  well  to  make  use  of  them  until  they 
outgrow  the  need  for  them.     But  symbols 


EVER    KNOWN  55 

are  of  value  only  where  the  real  thing  is  not, 
and  those  who  have  the  real  thing  no  longer 
have  need  for  symbols.  "But  the  hour 
Cometh,"  said  Jesus,  "and  now  is  "(since  I 
have  brought  you  the  real  spirit  of  truth), 
"when  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship 
the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth ;  for  such  doth 
the  Father  seek  to  be  His  worshippers. 
God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him 
must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth." 

Jesus,  according  to  his  own  words,  did 
not  propose  to  rest  satisfied  with  the  mere 
historical  belief  \\\dX  he  was  the  Eternal  Word 
made  flesh,  and  much  less,  as  some  phases 
of  theology  teach,  that  reconciliation  with 
the  Father,  as  ordinarily  understood,  was  his 
purpose.  God  would  adopt  no  methods  in 
connection  with  His  children  that  are  op- 
posed to  ftieir  own  reason.  Nor  would  He 
adopt  any  partial,  limited,  or  tribal  methods. 

And  if,  as  various  theologians  would  have 
us  believe,  that  reconciliation  with  the  Father 
can  come  about  only  by  a  belief  in  the  shed- 
ding of  the  material,  physical  blood  of  Jesus, 
that  through  it  the  Father  may  receive  satis- 
faction for  His  favour,  how  is  it  in  regard 
to   the  great  company  of  those  who  cannot 


56         THE    GREATEST   THING 

accept  a  theory  so  absurd,  so  illogical,  and 
so  opposed  to  the  nature  of  the  living  God 
whom  they  knoiv,  and  about  whom  they 
no  longer  have  to  speculate  and  theorise, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  millions  upon  millions 
of  those  who  never  have  heard,  and  other 
millions  who  never  can  hear,  of  the  man 
Jesus  and  the  story  of  his  blood  "shed  for 
the  sins  of  the  world,"  nine-tenths  of  whom, 
for  good  reasons,  would  not  believe  it  if  they 
did  hear  it?  No,  these  fabrications  cannot 
be  true,  for  "  in  every  nation,  he  that  feareth 
God  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted 
of  Him."  And  so  one  may  be  without  con- 
nection with  any  church,  and  even  without 
connection  with  any  established  religion,  and 
yet  be  in  spirit,  hence  in  reality,  a  much 
truer  Christian  than  hosts  of  those  who 
profess  to  be  his  most  ardent  followers,  as 
indeed  Jesus  himself  so  many  times  says. 
"By  Xheir  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  said 
he.  "Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me. 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

That  which  calls  itself  Christianity  must 
prove  itself,  and  only  that  which  shows  forth 


EVER   KNOWN  57 

in  its  life  the  works,  the  power,  the  influence 
— the  truth  that  Jesus'  life  showed  forth — is 
the  real.  "  He  that  believeth  on  me,"  said 
Jesus, — and  shows  it  by  living  my  life, — 
"  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also ;  and 
greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do  because 
I  go  unto  the  Father."  And  he  who  would 
know  by  what  authority  Jesus  spoke,  let  him 
live  the  life  that  he  lived  and  he  will  then 
know  of  the  doctrine.  Thus  and  thus  only 
can  it  be  known.  We  may  speculate  and 
theorise  in  regard  to  it,  but  only  by  living 
the  life  can  we  k7ww  it. 


58        THE   GREATEST   THING 
IV 

THE   philosopher's   RIPEST   LIFE  THOUGHT 

T  ET  US  now  see  how  the  truths  we  have 
already  set  forth  stand  in  reference  to 
the  thought  of  the  philosopher  Fichte. 
Truth,  the  highest  truth,  and  truth  for  its 
own  sake,  was  the  one  supreme  object  of  his 
life.  And  in  order  to  discern  this  clearly  him- 
self, that  he  in  turn  might  point  it  out  clearly 
to  others,  he  stood  erect  and  alone,  free  from 
connection  with  any  institution,  organisation, 
or  system  of  thought  that  would  distort  or 
limit  his  vision  and  induce  him  either  inten- 
tionally or  unintentionally  to  interpret  truth 
by  bending  it  to  suit  the  tenets  of  the  system 
of  thought  or  the  institution  to  which  he 
might  be,  even  though  inadvertently,  bound. 
It  was  of  Fichte  that  an  eminent  English 
scholar  once  said :  ^'  Far  above  the  dark 
vortex  of  theological  strife  in  which  punier 
intellects  chafe  and  vex  themselves  in  vain, 
Fichte  struggles  forward  in  the  sunshine  of 
pure  thought  which  sectarianism  cannot  see, 


EVER   KNOWN  59 

because  its  weakened  vision  is  already  filled 
with  a  borrowed  and  imperfect  light."  — 

It  is,  moreover,  always  of  value  to  know 
how  the  truth  that  one  finds  and  endeavours 
to  give  to  others  finds  embodiment  in  his 
own  life,  for  this  is  the  sure  and  unfailing 
test  of  its  vitality,  if  not  indeed  of  its  reality. 
A  word  or  two,  therefore,  in  reference  to  the 
life  of  Fichte  may  not  be  inappropriate  here, 
a  word  or  two  from  the  same  eminent 
English  scholar  quoted  above,  the  trans- 
lator of  his  works  from  the  German  to  the 
English,  for  he  knew  well  his  life  as  he_ 
knew  also  his  philosophy.  "We  prize  his'^ 
philosophy  deeply,"  says  he;  "it  is  to  us 
an  invaluable  possession,  for  it  seems  the 
noblest  exposition  to  which  we  have  yet 
Hstened  of  human  nature  and  divine  truth ; 
but  with  reverent  thankfulness  we  acknow- 
ledge a  still  higher  debt,  for  he  has  left 
behind  him  the  best  gift  which  man  can 
bequeath  to  man — a  brave,  heroic  human 
life."  "        "'  ^ 

"  In  the  strong  reality  of  his  life, — in  his 
intense  love  for  all  things  beautiful  and  true, 
— in  his  incorruptible  integrity  and  heroic 
devotion  to  the  right,  we  see  a  living  mani- 


>       OF  THE 


6o         THE   GREATEST   THING 

festation  of  his  principles.  His  life  is  the 
true  counterpart  of  his  philosophy — it  is  that 
of  a  strong,  free,  incorruptible  man." 

And  now  to  a  few  paragraphs  of  Fichte's 
thought  bearing  more  or  less  directly  upon 
the  theme  immediately  in  hand.  After  set- 
ting forth  in  a  very  comprehensive  manner 
the  truth  in  regard  to  Being,  which  he 
identifies  with  Life  much  in  the  same 
general  manner  as  we  have  already  en- 
deavoured to  set  it  forth,  and  then  after 
making  it  clear  that  by  God  he  means  this 
Infinite  Being,  this  Spirit  of  Infinite  Life, 
he  says  : 

"God  alone  is,  and  nothing  besides  him, 
— a  principle  which,  it  seems  to  me,  may 
be  easily  comprehended,  and  which  is  the 
indispensable  condition  of  all  religious  in- 
sight." 

"But  beyond  this  mere  empty  and 
imaginary  conception,  and  as  we  have 
carefully  set  forth  this  matter  above,  God 
enters  into  us  in  his  actual,  true,  and 
immediate  life, — or,  to  express  it  more 
strictly,  we  ourselves  are  this  his  immediate 


EVER   KNOWN  6i 

Life.  But  we  are  not  conscious  of  this 
immediate  Divine  Life ;  and  since,  as  we 
have  also  already  seen,  our  own  Existence 
— that  which  properly  belongs  to  us — is  that 
only  which  we  can  embrace  in  consciousness, 
so  our  Being  in  God,  notwithstanding  that 
at  bottom  it  is  indeed  ours,  remains  never- 
theless forever  foreign  to  us,  and  thus,  in 
deed  and  truth,  to  ourselves  is  not  our  Being ; 
we  are  in  no  respect  the  better  of  this  insight, 
and  remain  as  far  removed  as  ever  from  God. 
We  know  nothing  of  this  immediate  Divine 
Life,  I  said ;  for  even  at  the  first  touch  of 
consciousness  it  is  changed  into  a  dead 
World.  .  .  .  The  form  forever  veils  the 
substance  from  us  ;  our  vision  itself  conceals 
its  object;  our  eye  stands  in  its  own  light. 
I  say  unto  thee  who  thus  complainest : 
'  Raise  thyself  to  the  standing-point  of 
Religion,  and  all  these  veils  are  drawn 
aside;  the  World,  with  its  dead  principle, 
disappears  from  before  thee,  and  the  God- 
head once  more  resumes  its  place  within 
thee,  in  its  first  and  original  form,  as  Life, — 
as  thine  own  Life,  which  thou  oughtest  to 
live  and  shalt  live.'" 

In    setting   forth   how   universally   Divine 


62         THE   GREATEST   THING 

Being  incarnates  itself  in  human  Life,  he 
says :  "  From  the  first  standing-point  the 
Eternal  Word  becomes  flesh,  assumes  a 
personal,  sensible,  and  human  existence, 
without  obstruction  or  reserve,  in  all  times, 
and  in  every  individual  man  who  has  a  living 
insight  into  his  unity  with  God,  and  who 
actually  and  in  truth  gives  up  his  personal 
life  to  the  Divine  Life  within  him, — precisely 
in  the  same  way  as  it  became  incarnate  in 
Jesus  Christ." 

Speaking,  then,  of  the  great  fundamental 
fact  that  the  truth  that  Jesus  himself 
perceived  and  gave  to  the  world,  and  also 
of  the  manner  whereby  he  came  into  the 
perception  of  it,  he  says  :  "Jesus  of  Nazareth 
undoubtedly  possessed  the  highest  perception 
containing  the  foundation  of  all  other  Truth, 
of  the  absolute  identity  of  Humanity  with 
the  Godhead,  as  regards  what  is  essentially 
real  in  the  former." 

"His  self-consciousness  was  at  once  the 
pure  and  absolute  Truth  of  Reason  itself, 
self-existent  and  independent,  the  simple 
fact  of  consciousness." 

•        ••»•         *•• 

Then  in  showing  that  Jesus  as  he  is  pre- 


EVER   KNOWN  63 

sented  to  us  by  the  apostle  John  never  con- 
ceived of  his  Hfe  in  any  other  Hght  than 
as  one  with  the  Father's  Life,  he  says : 

"  But  it  is  precisely  the  most  prominent  and 
striking  trait  in  the  character  of  the  Johannean 
Jesus,  ever  recurring  in  the  same  shape,  that 
he  will  know  nothing  of  such  a  separation 
of  his  personality  from  his  Father,  and  that 
he  earnestly  rebukes  others  who  attempt 
to  make  such  a  distinction ;  while  he  con- 
stantly assumes  that  he  who  sees  him  sees 
the  Father,  that  he  who  hears  him  hears  the 
Father,  and  that  he  and  the  Father  are 
wholly  one ;  and  he  unconditionally  denies 
and  rejects  the  notion  of  an  independent 
being  in  himself,  such  an  unbecoming 
elevation  of  himself  having  been  made  an 
objection  against  him  by  misunderstanding. 
To  him  Jesus  was  not  God,  for  to  him  there 
was  no  independent  Jesus  whatever;  but 
God  was  Jesus,  and  manifested  himself  as 
Jesus." 

To  show,  then,  that  this  is  a  universal 
truth,  brought  in  its  fulness,  and  with  a  liv- 
ing exemplified  vitality,  first  to  the  world  by 
Jesus,  but  by  no  means  applicable  to  him 
alone,  he  says  :  "  An  insight  into  the  absolute 


64         THE   GREATEST   THING 

unity  of  the  Human  Existence  with  the 
Divine  is  certainly  the  profoundest  Know- 
ledge that  man  can  attain.  Before  Jesus 
this  Knowledge  had  nowhere  existed ;  and 
since  his  time,  we  may  say,  even  down  to 
the  present  day,  it  has  been  again  as  good 
as  rooted  out  and  lost,  at  least  in  profane 
literature." 

That  we  must  come  into  the  same  living 
realisation  of  this  great  transcendent  truth 
that  Jesus  came  into,  either  through  his 
teaching  and  exemplified  realisation  of  it,  or 
through  whatever  channel  it  may  come,  he 
clearly  indicates  by  the  following :  "  The 
living  possession  of  the  theory  we  have  now 
set  forth — not  the  dry,  dead,  and  merely 
historical  knowledge  of  it — is,  according  to 
our  doctrine,  the  highest,  and  indeed  the 
only  possible,  Blessedness." 

"The  Metaphysical  only,  and  not  the 
Historical,  can  give  us  Blessedness;  the 
latter  can  only  give  us  understanding.  If 
iany  man  be  truly  united  with  God,  and  dwell 
in  him,  it  is  altogether  an  indifferent  thing 
how  he  may  have  reached  this  state ;  and  it 
would  be  a  most  useless  and  perverse  em- 
ployment, instead  of  living  in  the  thing,  to 


EVER   KNOWN  65 

be  continually  repeating  over  our  recollec- 
tions of  the  way.  Could  Jesus  return  into 
the  world,  we  might  expect  him  to  be 
thoroughly  satisfied,  if  he  found  Christianity 
actually  reigning  in  the  minds  of  men, 
whether  his  merit  in  the  work  were  recog- 
nised or  overlooked ;  and  this  is,  in  fact,  the 
very  least  that  might  be  expected  from  a 
man  who,  while  he  lived  on  earth,  sought 
not  his  own  glory,  but  the  glory  of  him  who 
sent  him." 

And  what  in  the  eyes  of  Fichte  are  the 
results  that  follow  and  hence  the  tests  of 
the  genuineness  of  this  higher  realisation, 
this  True  Religion,  as  he  sometimes  terms 
it  ?  His  words  in  this  connection  are  :  "  True 
Religion,  notwithstanding  that  it  raises  the 
view  of  those  who  are  inspired  by  it  to  its  own 
region,  nevertheless  retains  their  Life  firmly 
in  the  domain  of  action,  and  of  right  moral 
action.  The  true  and  real  Religious  Life  is 
not  alone  percipient  and  contemplative,  does 
not  merely  brood  over  devout  thoughts,  but 
is  essentially  active.  It  consists,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  the  intimate  consciousness  that  God 
actually  lives,  moves,  and  perfects  his  work 
in  us.     If  therefore  there  is  in   us  no  real 


66         THE   GREATEST   THING 

Life,  if  no  activity  and  no  visible  work  pro- 
ceed forth  from  us,  then  is  God  not  active  in 
us.  Our  consciousness  of  union  with  God 
is  then  deceptive  and  vain,  and  the  empty 
shadow  of  a  condition  that  is  not  ours; 
perhaps  the  general,  but  lifeless,  insight  that 
such  a  condition  is  possible,  and  in  others 
may  be  actual,  but  that  we  ourselves  have, 
nevertheless,  not  the  least  portion  in  it." 

"  Religion  does  not  consist  in  mere  devout 
dreams,  I  said :  Religion  is  not  a  business 
by  and  for  itself,  which  a  man  may  practise 
apart  from  his  other  occupations,  perhaps 
on  certain  fixed  days  and  hours;  but  it  is 
the  inmost  spirit  that  penetrates,  inspires, 
and  pervades  all  our  Thought  and  Action, 
which  in  other  respects  pursue  their  ap- 
pointed course  without  change  or  interrup- 
tion. That  the  Divine  Life  and  Energy 
actually  lives  in  us  is  inseparable  from 
Religion,  I  said." 

To  show,  then,  how  completely  at  one  in 
his  or  her  consciousness  this  truly  religious 
man  or  woman  becomes,  how  his  or  her 
own  personal  will  is  lost  in,  and  so  trans- 
muted into,  the  Divine  Will,  as  also  the 
calmness  and  tranquillity  with  which  his  or 


EVER   KNOWN  67 

her  life  forever  thereafter  flows  along,  he 
says :  "  The  expression  of  the  constant 
mind  of  the  truly  Moral  and  Religious 
man  is  this  prayer :  '  Lord !  let  but  thy 
will  be  done,  then  is  mine  also  done;  for 
I  have  no  other  will  than  this — that  thy 
will  be  done." 

"This  Divine  Life  now  continually  de- 
velops itself  within  him,  without  hindrance 
or  obstruction,  as  it  can  and  must  develop 
itself  only  in  him  and  his  individuality; 
this  alone  it  is  that  he  properly  wills;  his 
will  is  therefore  always  accomplished,  and  it 
is  absolutely  impossible  that  anything  con- 
trary to  it  should  ever  come  to  pass." 

"Whatever  comes  to  pass  around  him, 
nothing  appears  to  him  strange  or  un- 
accountable— he  knows  assuredly,  whether 
he  understand  it  or  not,  that  it  is  in  God's 
World,  and  that  there  nothing  can  be  that 
does  not  directly  tend  to  Good.  In  him 
there  is  no  fear  for  the  Future,  for 
the  absolute  fountain  of  all  Blessedness 
eternally  bears  him  on  towards  it;  no 
sorrow  for  the  Past,  for  in  so  far  as  he 
was  not  in  God  he  was  nothing,  and  this 
is  now  at  an  end,  and  since  he  has  dwelt 


68        THE   GREATEST   THING 

in  God  he  has  been  bom  into  Light; 
while  in  so  far  as  he  was  in  God,  that 
which  he  has  done  is  assuredly  right  and 
good.  He  has  never  aught  to  deny  him- 
self, nor  aught  to  long  for;  for  he  is  at 
all  times  in  eternal  possession  of  the  ful- 
ness of  all  that  he  is  capable  of  enjoying. 
For  him  all  labour  and  effort  have  vanished ; 
his  whole  Outward  Existence  flows  forth, 
softly  and  gently,  from  his  Inward  Being, 
and  issues  out  into  Reality  without  difficulty 
or  hindrance." 

Speaking,  then,  of  how  we  may  at  once 
enter  into  and  live  in  the  full  realisation 
of  this  real  life,  and  also  of  those  who, 
instead  of  entering  immediately  into  the 
Kingdom  and  thus  finding  the  highest 
happiness  and  joy  here  and  now,  are 
expecting  to  find  it  in  its  completeness 
after  the  transition  we  call  death,  he  says : 
"Full  surely  indeed  there  lies  a  Blessed- 
ness beyond  the  grave  for  those  who  have 
already  entered  upon  it  here,  and  in  no 
other  form  or  way  than  that  by  which  they 
can  already  enter  upon  it  here  in  this 
moment;  but  by  mere  burial  man  cannot 
arrive  at   Blessedness — and  in    the    future 


EVER   KNOWN  69 

life,  and  throughout  the  whole  infinite 
range  of  all  future  life,  they  would  seek 
for  happiness  as  vainly  as  they  have  already 
sought  it  here,  if  they  were  to  seek  it  in 
aught  else  than  in  that  which  already  sur- 
rounds them  so  closely  here  below  that 
throughout  Eternity  it  can  never  be  brought 
nearer  to  them — in  the  Infinite.  And  thus 
does  the  poor  child  of  Eternity,  cast  forth 
from  his  native  home,  and  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  his  heavenly  inheritance  which 
yet  his  trembling  hand  fears  to  grasp, 
wander  with  fugitive  and  uncertain  step 
throughout  the  waste,  everywhere  labouring 
to  establish  for  himself  a  dwelling  place, 
but  happily  ever  reminded,  by  the  speedy 
downfall  of  each  of  his  successive  habita- 
tions, that  he  can  find  peace  nowhere  but 
in  his  Father's  house." 

Finally,  speaking  of  how  completely  doubt 
and  uncertainty  are  eliminated  from  the  life 
of  him  who  through  the  realisation  of  the 
truth  we  have  set  forth  becomes  thereby 
centred  in  the  Infinite,  he  says:  "The 
Religious  man  is  forever  secured  from  the 
possibility  of  doubt  and  uncertainty.  In 
every  moment  he  knows  distinctly  what  he 


70        THE   GREATEST  THING 

wills,  and  ought  to  will;  for  the  innermost 
root  of  his  life — his  will — forever  flows  forth 
from  the  Divinity,  immediately  and  without 
the  possibility  of  error ;  its  indication  is  in- 
fallible, and  for  that  indication  he  has  an 
infallible  perception.  In  every  moment  he 
knows  that  in  all  Eternity  he  shall  know 
what  he  shall  will,  and  ought  to  will ;  that 
in  all  Eternity  the  fountain  of  Divine  Love 
which  has  burst  forth  in  him  shall  never 
be  dried  up,  but  shall  uphold  him  securely 
and  bear  him  on  forever." 

Such,  then,  in  general,  are  fragments  of 
the  thought,  and,  let  it  be  added,  the  ripest 
thought,  of  one  who  has  exerted  perhaps  as 
great  a  direct  influence  upon  the  life  of  his 
own  immediate  as  well  as  succeeding  ages  as 
any  man  who  has  ever  lived.  It  is  to  Fichte 
that,  to  a  very  great  extent,  the  German  Em- 
pire owes  the  splendid  educational  system 
it  has  to-day.  His  thought  began  to  exert 
its  influence  at  the  time  when  its  educational 
system  was  falling  into  a  state  of  chaos,  and 
even  the  Empire  itself  by  virtue  of  its  recent 
losses  was  in  a  more  or  less  uncertain 
condition.  And,  acting  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  through  the   minds  of  Froebel  and 


EVER   KNOWN  71 

Pestalozzi,  his  thought  has  aided  in  giving 
to  the  world  the  truest  type  of  education 
it  has  yet  seen,  that  that  we  know  under 
the  name  kindergarten,  which  is  slowly  but 
surely  working  to  revolutionise  our  present 
educational  methods,  which  stand  so  sadly 
in  need  of  a  change  even  so  radical. 

If  the  truth  and  vitality  of  a  man's  thought 
are  to  be  judged  by  its  permanent  as  well  as 
its  immediate  influence,  surely  the  thought 
of  Fichte  found  its  life  in  the  realms  of  the 
highest  truth,  through  which  alone  real 
vitality  comes,  for  it  has  exerted  and  is  still 
exerting  a  most  powerful  life-giving  influence, 
an  influence,  indeed,  that  will  never  end. 


72        THE   GREATEST  THING 


SUSTAINED    IN   PEACE   AND   SAFETY    FOREVER 

A  T  what  now  have  we  arrived,  and  what 
has  been  the  process?  From  our 
own  reason  and  insight,  independently  of 
all  outside  authority,  we  have  found  the 
great  truth  that  a  living  insight  into  the 
fact  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  human 
life  with  the  Divine  Life  is  the  profoundest 
knowledge  that  man  can  attain  to.  This 
as  a  mere  intellectual  perception,  however, 
as  a  mere  dead  theory,  amounts  to  but 
little,  if  indeed,  to  anything  at  all,  as  far  as 
bearing  fruit  in  every-day  life  is  concerned. 
It  is  the  vital,  living  realisation  of  this 
great  transcendent  truth  in  the  life  of  each 
one  that  makes  it  a  mighty  moving  and 
moulding  force  in  his  life. 

Then  we  have  also  found  that  this  same 
great  truth  was  the  great  central  fact  of 
both  the  life  and  the  teachings  of  one 
who  comes  as  authority  to  practically  all 
the  world,  the  Christ  Jesus.     That  this  was 


EVER   KNOWN  ^i 

the  one  great  truth  in  which  he  continually 
lived,  that  it  was  the  secret  of  his  unusual 
insight  and  power,  and  that  it  was  also  the 
great  truth  that  he  came  to  bring  to  the 
world,  he  distinctly  tells  us.  That  it  was 
not  only  what  he  proclaimed  that  he  came 
to  teach,  but  also  what  he  distinctly  taught, 
we  have  likewise  found. 

We  have  found  also  that  the  ripest  life 
thought  of  the  philosopher  Fichte — whose 
spiritual  vision  was  so  fully  unfolded  as 
to  enable  him  to  give  to  the  world  such 
a  remarkable  blending  of  the  intellectual 
and  the  spiritual  in  his  philosophy  —  was 
almost  if  not  identically  the  same  in  refer- 
ence to  this  great  truth,  as  was  also  his 
thought  in  regard  to  the  life  and  the  power 
as  well  as  the  mission  of  Jesus. 

And  when  I  see  day  after  day  the  wonder- 
ful results  that  follow  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  have  entered  into  this  living  realisation, 
then  I  know  that  Jesus  knew  whereof  he 
spoke  when  he  gave  the  injunction,  "Seek 
ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteous- 
ness, and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you."     Moreover,  I  do  not  believe,  but 


74        THE   GREATEST   THING 

/  know^  that  whoever  through  this  realisa- 
tion thus  finds  the  kingdom  of  God  will 
find  his  words  —  that  all  else  will  follow 
— literally  and  absolutely  as  well  as  neces- 
sarily true.  All  will  follow  in  a  perfectly 
natural  and  normal  manner,  in  full  accord- 
ance with  natural  spiritual  law. 

He  who  goes  thus  directly  to  the  mountain 
top  will  find  all  things  spread  out  before 
him  in  the  valley  below.  He  who  thus 
becomes  centred  in  the  Infinite  will  find 
that  to  the  same  centre  whence  his  inner 
life  issues,  all  things  pertaining  to  his  outer 
material  life  will  in  turn  be  drawn.  The 
beauty  of  holiness  is  one  with  the  beauty 
of  wholeness.  To  know  but  the  One  Life 
is  to  live  in  the  fact  and  the  beauty  of 
wholeness;  and  where  wholeness  is,  there 
no  lack  of  anything  will  be  found. 

If  what  we  ordinarily  term  our  Christian 
churches,  and  if  the  preachers  who  stand 
in  their  pulpits,  would  fully  and  universally 
give  themselves  to  the  real  message  that 
Jesus  gave  to  the  world,  then  we  would 
find  that  "the  common  people"  would  go 
to  them  and  hear  them  gladly ;  there  would 
then  be  no  hard  pressing  social  situation  to 


EVER   KNOWN  75 

face,  for  the  people  would  then  have  a  living 
knowledge  of  the  one  great  truth  through 
which  all  other  things  would  come. 

This  great  transcendent  truth,  however, 
that  was  the  very  essence  of  the  life  and  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  has  been  even  in  our 
churches  as  good  as  rooted  out  and  lost. 
And  shall  we  conclude  that  because  it  is  prac- 
tically lost  the  greater  part  of  the  time  and  at- 
tention of  the  preacher  in  the  large  majority 
of  them  is  given  to  the  empty,  barren,  incon- 
sequential themes  it  is  given  to?  Or  is  it 
because  so  much  time  and  attention  is  given 
to  the  latter  that  there  is  no  time  left  for  the 
former?  However  this  may  be,  it  certainly  is 
true  that  that  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  to-day 
we  find  identically  the  same  conditions  that 
Jesus  found,  and  that  he  continually  tried  so 
hard  to  do  away  with.  "  Full  well,"  said  he, 
"ye  reject  the  commandment  of  God,  that 
ye  may  keep  your  own  tradition." 

Many  a  student  comes  from  our  theologi- 
cal schools  so  steeped  in  theological  specu- 
lations and  in  denominational  dogmas  that 
he  hasn't  the  slightest  conception  of  what 
the  real  mission  of  Jesus  was.  What 
wonder,  then,  that  the  church  to  which  he 


76        THE   GREATEST  THING 

goes  soon  becomes  a  dead  shell  from  which 
the  life  has  gone,  into  which  those  in  love 
with  life  will  no  longer  enter,  a  church  whose 
chief  concern  very  soon  is,  how  to  raise  the 
minister's  stipend?  But  once  let  these  minor 
and  inconsequential,  not  to  say  at  times  petty, 
foolish,  and  absurd,  things  be  dropped,  and 
let  all  time  and  attention  be  given  to  the 
great  central  truth  that  Jesus  brought  to  the 
world,  and  we  shall  find  that  during  the  next 
one  hundred  years,  ay,  during  the  next  fifty 
years,  what  will  then  be  real  Christianity 
will  make  more  progress  than  what  is  now 
termed  Christianity  has  made  during  all  the 
nineteen  hundred  years  it  has  been  in  the 
world.  The  fact  that  during  all  these 
hundreds  of  years  it  has  not  accomplished 
more  than  it  has  is  quite  good  evidence 
that  something  essential  is  lacking  in  it. 

The  real  soul-cry  even  of  all  Christendom 
to-day  is  the  same  as  the  injunction  given  by 
the  native  ministers  of  Japan  to  a  noted 
representative  of  the  Christian  religion  as  he 
was  leaving  there  not  long  ago :  "  Send  us 
no  more  doctrines  :  we  are  tired  of  them. 
Send  us  Christ."  And  the  only  way  that 
Christ  can  be  sent  is  by  sending  the  great 


EVER   KNOWN  77 

central  truth  that  he  brought  to  the  world,  a 
truth  so  world-wide^  so  universal^  that,  so  far 
even  as  the  so-called  various  great  religions 
are  concerned,  in  regard  to  it  there  can  be 
no  differences,  for  from  its  very  nature  it  is 
at  the  very  foundation,  indeed,  the  very  life 
essence,  of  them  all.  And  so  it  is  true  in  this 
sense  that  there  is  essentially  but  one  religion, 
the  religion  of  the  living  God.  For  to  live 
in  the  conscious  realisation  of  the  fact  that 
God  lives  in  us,  is  indeed  the  life  of  our  life, 
and  that  in  ourselves  we  have  no  independent 
life,  and  hence  no  power,  is  the  one  great 
fact  of  all  true  religion,  even  as  it  is  the  one 
great  fact  of  human  life.  Religion,  therefore, 
at  its  purest,  and  life  at  its  truest,  are  essenti- 
ally and  necessarily  one  and  the  same. 

It  is  only  through  this  living  realisation  of 
the  essential  unity  of  our  life  with  the  Father's 
life  that  true  blessedness,  and  even  true 
peace  and  happiness,  can  be  found.  The 
sooner,  then,  that  we  come  into  it,  and  thus 
live  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  better,  for 
neither  will  they  come  nor  can  they  be  found 
in  any  other  way.  There  is,  moreover,  no 
time  either  in  this  form  of  life,  or  in  any 
other  form,  when  we  can  any  more  readily 


78        THE   GREATEST  THING 

come  into  It,  and  thereby  into  all  that  follows, 
than  we  can  at  this  very  moment.  And 
when  this  fountain  of  Divine  Life  is  once 
fully  opened  within  us,  it  can  never  again 
be  dried  up,  and  we  can  rest  assured  that  it 
will  at  all  times  uphold  us  in  peace  and 
bear  us  on  in  safety.  And  however  strange 
or  unaccountable  at  times  occurrences  may 
appear,  we  can  rest  in  a  triumphant  security, 
knowing  that  only  good  can  come,  for  in 
God's  life  there  is  only  good,  and  in  God's 
life  we  are  now  living,  and  there  we  shall 
live  forever. 


EVER   KNOWN  79 


A  Method 

There  is  a  simple  method  which  will  aid 
us  greatly  in  coming  into  the  realisation  we 
have  been  considering.  So  simple  is  it  that 
thousands  and  indeed  millions  have  passed 
it  by,  looking,  as  is  so  generally  our  custom, 
for  agencies  of  at  least  apparently  greater 
power;  we  so  frequently  and  so  universally 
forget  that  the  greatest  things  in  life  are 
the  most  simple. 

The  method  is  this :  wherever  you  are, 
whatever  doing,  walking  along  the  street  or 
through  the  fields,  at  work  of  any  kind,  falling 
off  to  or  awaking  from  sleep,  setting  about 
any  undertaking,  in  doubt  as  to  what  course 
to  pursue  at  any  particular  time,  in  brief, 
whatever  it  may  be,  carry  with  you  this 
thought:  It  is  the  Father  that  worketh  in 
me,  my  Father  works  and  I  work.  This 
is  the  thought  so  continually  used  by  Jesus, 
who  came  into  probably  the  fullest  realisation 
of  the  oneness  of  his  life  with  the  God-life 
that  any  one  who  has  lived  in  the  world 
thus   far   has   come   into,   and    it    is   given 


8o        THE   GREATEST   THING 

because  it  is  so  simple.  From  it  each  can 
make  his  own  formula.  Jesus'  term  was 
"the  Father."  Many  will  likewise  find 
themselves  naturally  using  the  same  term 
and  will  find  it  becoming  very  precious  to 
them.  Others  will  find  themselves  using 
other  terms  for  the  same  conception  and 
thought :  It  is  the  Father  that  worketh  in 
me,  my  Father  works  and  I  work.  In  other 
words,  It  is  the  spirit  of  Infinite  Life  and 
Power  that  is  behind  all,  working  in  and 
through  all,  the  life  and  animating  power 
of  all, — God, — that  worketh  in  me,  and  I 
do  as  I  am  directed  and  empowered  by  It. 
In  this  way  we  open  ourselves,  and  become 
consciously  awake  to  the  Infinite  Life  and 
Power  that  is  ever  waiting  and  ready  to 
direct  and  work  in  our  lives,  if  we  will  merely 
put  ourselves  into  the  attitude  whereby  It 
can  work  in  them.  In  this  way  we  open 
ourselves  so  that  It  can  speak  and  manifest 
to  and  through  us.  This  It  is  ever  ready 
to  do  if  we  will  but  make  for  It  the  right 
conditions.  By  carrying  with  us  this 
thought,  by  holding  ourselves  in  this  attitude 
of  mind  consciously  for  a  while,  by  repeating 
it  even  in  so  many  words  now  and  then  at 


EVER   KNOWN  8i 

first,  we  will  find  it  in  time  becoming  our 
habitual  thought,  and  will  find  ourselves 
living  in  it  without  the  conscious  effort  that 
we  have  to  make  at  first,  and  we  will  in  time 
find  ourselves  almost  unconsciously  living  in 
it  continually.  Thus  God  as  a  living  pres- 
ence, as  a  guiding,  animating  power,  becomes 
an  actuality  in  our  lives.  The  conscious 
presence  of  God  in  our  lives,  which  is 
the  essence,  indeed  the  sum  and  substance 
of  all  religion,  then  becomes  a  reality,  and 
all  wisdom  and  all  power  will  be  given  us  as 
we  are  able  to  appropriate  and  use  them 
wisely;  if  for  merely  selfish,  personal  ends, 
they  will  be  withheld ;  if  for  the  greatest  aid 
and  service  for  the  world,  we  will  find  them 
continually  increasing. 

With  this  higher  realisation  comes  more 
and  more  the  simple,  child-like  spirit.  With 
Jesus  we  realise — Of  myself  I  can  do  nothing, 
it  is  the  Father  within  me  that  doeth  His 
work.  In  ourselves  we  are  and  can  do 
nothmg ;  in  God  we  can  do  all  things.  We 
never  can  be  in  the  condition — in  God — 
until  through  this  higher  realisation  God 
becomes  a  conscious^  living  reality  in  our 
lives. 


82         THE   GREATEST   THING 

Faithfulness  to  this  simple  method  will 
bring  about  a  complete  change  in  great 
numbers  of  lives.  Each  one  for  himself  can 
test  its  efficacy  in  a  very  short  time.  It  is 
the  highway  upon  which  many  will  enter 
and  which  will  take  them  by  easy  stages  into 
the  realisation  of  the  highest  life  that  can  be 
attained  to.  To  set  one's  face  in  the  right 
direction,  and  then  simply  to  travel  on,  will 
in  time  bring  him  into  the  realisation  of 
the  highest  life  that  can  be  even  conceived 
of — it  is  the  secret  of  all  attainment. 


For  further  suggestions  as  to  the  method  of  entering  into 
this  higher  realisation,  as  also  for  a  much  fuller  portrayal  of 
its  results  in  every-day  life,  the  reader  is  directed  to  the  volume 
by  the  same  author  entitled,  "In  Tune  with  the  Infinite;  or, 
Fullness  of  Peace,  Power,  and  Plenty." 


By  RALPH    WALDO    TRINE. 

"The  Life  Books." 

What  All  the  World's  A-Seeking. 

Its  purpose  is  distinctly  practical.  It  is  most  fas- 
cinatingly written,  and  deserves  the  remarkable  suc- 
cess it  has  achieved.  —  The  Review  of  Reviews. 

The  volume  abounds  in  passages  of  great  beauty 
and  strength;  but  the  striking  feature  of  the  book 
is,  after  all,  the  solid,  sensible,  healthy  exposition  of 
the  one  theme  it  is  written  to  enforce.  —  New  York 
Independent. 

This  is  a  book  among  a  thousand  for  its  inspiring 
message,  and  is  eminently  worthy  of  a  vast  audience. 
You  will  miss  much  if  you  miss  reading  its  truth- 
laden  pages.  —  Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

In  Tune  With  the   Infinite. 

It  is  one  of  the  simplest,  clearest  ^vorks  ever  writ- 
ten, dealing  with  the  power  of  the  interior  forces  in 
moulding  the  every-day  conditions  of  life.  —  San 
Francisco  Bulletin. 

...  It  immediately  suggests  the  works  of  Drum- 
mond,  but  shows  a  decided  advance  upon  the  ground 
Avhich  he  made  familiar  to  mankind ;  it  not  only  re- 
veals the  author's  recognition  of  spiritual  law,  but  in 
certain  instances  shows  his  rare  and  remarkable  un- 
derstanding of  the  nature  and  action  of  such  law; 
the  preface  alone  shows  his  high  intuition,  and  the 
book  proves  his  ability  to  achieve  his  purpose  in  a 
marvellous  degree.  —  Boston  Daily  Evening  Tran- 
script. 

Mr.  Trine  can  write  well  upon  such  topics  as  this. 
He  is  alive,  vigorous,  cheery,  confident.  The  work 
has  distinctiveness  in  its  style  and  method. —  The 
Literary  Worlds  Londoii. 


The  above  books  are  beautifully  and  durably  bound 

in  gray-green  raised  cloth,  statnfed  in  deep 

old-green  and  gold  y  with  gilt  top. 

Price,  $/.25  per  volume. 


THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL    &    CO.. 

NEW    YORK. 


By    RALPH    WALDO    TRINE. 

The  "  Life"  Booklets. 

The  Greatest  Thing  Ever  Known. 

The  moment  we  fully  and  vitally  realize  -who  and 
what  we  are  Ave  then  begin  to  build  our  own  world 
even  as  God  builds  His.  —  From    Title-page. 

...  It  unfolds  the  secret  of  our  underlying- 
strength,  and  shows  what  it  is  that  gives  us  power 
to  fulfil  the  real  and  living  purooses  of  our  being. 
—  The  New  Christianity. 

Every  Living  Creature. 

The  tender  and  humane  passion  in  the  human 
heart  is  too  precious  a  quality  to  allow  it  to  be 
hardened  or  effaced  by  practices  such  as  we  so  often 
indulge  in.  —  From  Title-page. 

An  eloquent  appeal  and  an  able  argument  for 
justice  and  mercy  to  our  dumb  fellow-creatures.  A 
good  book  for  those  whose  characters  are  being 
formed,  and  for  all  who  love  justice  and  right. — 
Religio-Philosophical  journal. 

Character-Building  Thought  Power. 

A  thought,  good  or  evil,  an  act,  in  time  a  habit, 
so  runs  life's  law;  what  you  live  in  your  thought- 
world,  that,  sooner  or  later,  you  w'll  find  objectified 
in  your  life.  —  From  Title-page. 

In  "  Character-Building  Thought  Power"  Mr. 
Trine  demonstrates  the  power  of  mental  habits, 
and  shows  how  by  daily  effort  we  may  train  our- 
selves into  right  ways  of  thinking  ar  i  acting.  His 
teachings  are  sound,  practical,  and  of  priceless 
worth.  —  Albany  Press. 


Bound  in  an  exceedingly  attractive  and  handy 
form.    Price,  S5  cents  per  volume. 


THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL   &   CO., 

NEW   YORK. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

EDUCATION-PSYCHOLOGY 
LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


JUL  2  2  REC'D- Wii 


MOV  28  1972 


DEC  88  1972 


DEC  1  g  REC'D  -9  / 


M- 


SEP  1 Q  1974 


8ECD  ORC  C^T        SEPi  feV* 


SEP  1  8  REC'D  -9  A!y 


OU  r  2  0 1992 


SUBJECT  TO  RECALL 


LD  21A-30m-6.'67 
(H2472sl0)476 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


CD5TMTi2c,(^ 


L 


